The Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA) has carried forward the mission of “Skilled in Odisha” to a level of visibility and impact during the last 4 years. This was known from the Governing Body Council of meeting of the OSDA held under the chairmanship of Skill Development and Technical Education and Planning and Convergence Minister Usha Devi on Friday.
The Minister urged the officers to scale up the implementation for 100 per cent achievement of the targets within scheduled time. Chief Secretary AP Padhi directed to focus on youth mobilisation, quality training and more placements.
Chairman Skill Development Authority Subroto Bagchi emphasised on making the ‘work-skills’ aspirational and respectable. Secretary Skill Development and Technical Education Sanjaya Singh told reporters, “The Government has set a target of skilling 11 lakh youths within five years from the year 2014-15 under the Chief Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (CMEGP). The OSDA has already skilled around 8.5 lakh youths up to December 2017.”
The youths have been trained in various ITIs, diploma institutions, engineering colleges and skill development centers. Apart from that, the OSDA has also imparted skill training to youths through Project Implementing Agencies ( PIAs) in the major trades like electrical, apparel and garment, construction, ICT, medical and nursing, plastic processing, refrigeration and air conditioning, production and manufacturing, hospitality, automotive, fabrication and fashion designing.
The enrolment surged to 84per cent from 64 per cent in the previous year. Because of the yearlong campaign, the girl enrolment increased to 12.8 per cent from 7.1 per cent in the previous year.