The Government of Jharkhand is targetting to ensure 20 lakh youth are skilled through its various training programmes. Not only different government departments but the corporate are also contributing to initiatives of the State Government, says Ajoy Kumar Singh, Secretary, Higher, Technical Education and Skill Development, Government of Jharkhand in an  interview with Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the mandate of your department for skill development of youth of Jharkhand?

We have got a mandate to skill 20 lakh people in next five years i.e. by 2022. In order to achieve that mandate, the government has also time and again reiterated that all the budgetary allocations were made to the Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS) and different departments.

Now, this mandate is not only for the society but the entire target has to be achieved by JSDMS along with other departments like urban development department, rural development department, and health and welfare department. out of this 20 lakh, 12 lakh will be trained by JSDMS whereas training of rest will be done by the aforementioned departments. In order to achieve that, the department has initiated various training programmes one of which is Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Yojana (SJKVY), started in December 2016.

Another scheme is Mega Skill Centre also known as Deen Dayal upadhyaya Kaushal Kendra and we have to establish one such training centre in each of the districts of the State. Recently, we have established 14 Mega Skill Centres across the state. Third one is Employability Excellence with College Education and Learning (EXCEL) programme in association with Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The programme is for the students pursuing graduation, passed their 10+2 but don’t want to pursue higher studies and for the students who have graduated but are unemployed due to lack of skills. So broadly speaking, these are the three main programmes for the skill development of youth in Jharkhand.

Which departments are involved in imparting skill training in Jharkhand? Throw some light on their role in brief.

Apart from JSDMS, urban development department is a major department involved in skill development of Jharkhand’s youth. urban development department is executing Deen Dayal upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana. Rural development department is another major department contributing to the skill development mission of the State. The third department is the ITIs, a major contributor to the skill development programme. These three are the major departments.

There are other departments like Industry Department, Health Department and the Agriculture Department that are contributing to the skill development programme.

What are the features, vision and mission of the Skill Development Policy of Jharkhand to the State as the “Skill Destination of India”?

The first and foremost reason that we are taking is to develop the State as skill hub of India and for this purpose we want to have a world class skill development centre in the State. We have signed a Mou with Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Singapore and they will be establishing a Brownfield project and a Greenfield project in Ranchi that will be the apex institutes for the skill development in the State. Chief Minister of Jharkhand has also announced to establish a Skill university in the State by next year. So these two will be the apex level institutions to guide skill development programmes and will act as the certifying agency. other than this, at mid-level there will be Mega Skill Centres. These will be the big centers with the capacity to train around 2,000-3,000 people.

We want to establish more such Mega Skill centres in Jharkhand to provide residential training so that anybody from any part of the State can pursue skill training. We have also increased the duration of the training programme. Initially, the duration was 300 to 400 hours but now the training is of 500 to 600 hours. We have also added soft skills as a component in the training programme so that youth of Jharkhand do not lack in these skills. Around 150 hours of soft skill training is provided in these programmes.

We have received positive feedback on Mega Skilling Centres, so now we want to increase the number of these centers by 40 or 50. These centres provide training to lots of people that’s why the centres will play a major role in achieving the target of skilling 20 lakh people by 2022.

Thirdly as we have talked about Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Centres which are the smaller centres established blocks or villages to provide easy access of skill development training programmes to citizens.

So in order to achieve our vision, it will be our way. Moreover, we are also linking the training programmes to jobs and we have also introduced a component of on job training.

We are trying to link higher and technical education with the skills development programme. We want to provide skill development training programme through our educational institutions in association with TISS and ILFS. We are also setting up Centre of Excellence and Skill Development Institutes in association with Siemens. one such centre five such institutes are already being established.

How “HUNAR” as a platform is benefitting the citizens and government of Jharkhand in skill development training and fulfilling the requirement of skilled labour?

The youth population in the State is fairly large as 1.08 crore people are between the age of 18 to 35. This is a perception all over India that skill programme is not job oriented, means the youth are not getting jobs, they are only getting training. In order to break that psychology, we are going to organise Skill Summit 2018. During the summit, we will give offer letters to 25,000 youth.

We received very good response for skill training and trained students from colleges and polytechnic are also participating in different placement melas. All over the State, we are having placement drive from the 1st November. Many of which are conducted and around 14,000 students are placed through these drives.

HUNAR brings employer and student on common platform. Employers and students can register online and may participate in interviews. After clearing the interview, the students will get the offer letter immediately.

How is the response for this HUNAR platform?

Excellent, especially for the campus drive we have undertaken. College principals are very enthusiastic and entire scenario is going to change because of this.

Industry engagement will act as a catalyst to create placementled training initiatives for skill aspirants of Jharkhand. How the Government is planning to partner with business communities and employers in this regard?

Industries are also involved in setting up the Mega Skilling Centres. These centres are either established with the help of industries or they have tie up with different centres e.g. one CMC Center has been set up in association with Hiranandani Group. A motor vehicle training centre has tie up with Mahindra. At the centre, Mahindra will be providing all the equipments The benefit of industry sponsored training centres is that the trained students are either recruited by the organisation itself or by any other organisation of the same industry. Another training centre in Madhupur has tie up with the health services. These training centres were set up in such a way that theyhave industry tie up from their inception.

“We have got a mandate to skill 20 lakh people in next five years i.e. by 2022. In order to achieve that mandate, the government has also time and again reiterated that all the budgetary allocations were made to the Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS) and different departments.”

What initiatives are being taken for the skill training of economically weaker section and minority community of the society?

All our programmes are as per the norms of Government of India. We are also providing uniforms to the candidates coming tour training centres. We have opened 14 placement centres and regular placement drives are conducted at these training centres throughout the year. We are also giving daily incentives of Rs 200 to every candidate appearing in these placement drives.

There are many cases of skilled students who don’t want to go outside their native State for jobs. What steps are taken to overcome this?

We have faced similar kind of problem in our placement drives. So, to resolve the issue, Chief Minister of Jharkhand addressed the industries and business houses of Jharkhand on December 22 to employ citizens of Jharkhand. We have signed Mous with companies for establishing the industries within the State and train youth of the State and prepare them as industry ready resource. It will help such candidates who don’t want to go outside the State in getting the local jobs We are also trying to train the people in such a way that they get better salaries outside their native States. It is useless to send the skilled youth outside the State on the salary they are getting locally. Level – 3 trained candidates are getting a salary of Rs 8,000 to 10,000; Level – 4 are getting Rs 11,000 to 15,000 and level – 5 are getting Rs 15,000 to 20,000. We are training the candidates in level – 3 and Level – 4. From next year our strategy will be to train people at level – 4 and more people to level – 5 to get a respectable livelihood. In order to achieve the same we have increased the course durations and at the same time we are encouraging to get enrolled for level – 5 training. It will also help the candidates to go outside the state willingly.

20 lakh is the target JSDMS is going to achieve by 2022 but what are the targets for 2019? What message you would like give to youth of Jharkhand?

Government is ready to provide skill training to youth as per their requirement and choice. At the same time, the Government is also trying to provide jobs to at least 70% people. 20 lakh is a big target but we are trying to develop the infrastructure in such a way that the target can be achieved easily in a phased manner. In just one year we achieved our previous target and through the summit we are going to celebrate it as the youth day by providing 25,000 certificates. This will change the public’s perception towards the skill training programme and will also boost us to achieve the targets.