Our present education system is producing degree owners, not the skilled and employable manpower. Being educationally qualified should not be misunderstood as skilled. The mason, carpenter, cobbler, electricians and roadside mechanics too are skilled professionals, but they do not possess certificates. Minister for Technical and Higher Education Umashankar Gupta stated this while inaugurating the two-day western region conference of Indian Society For Training and Development (ISTD). The theme of the conference, which is being organised by Bhopal chapter of ISTD, is ‘Skilling India: Make In India’.
Present on the occasion were ISTD national vice president and Prime Minister’s Skill Development Board advisor SJ Amlan, ISTD Bhopal chapter chairperson Rashmi Bhargava; ISTD, New Delhi head Tarun Pant and Madhya Pradesh Council For Vocational Education and Training (MPCEVT) CEO and Managing Director Sibi Chakraborthy. Gupta said that the students should work on developing skills during their studies, so that they become employable by the time they complete education. Sharing his experience of a convocation ceremony, Gupta further said that he visited a college to distribute degrees to the students, but found that students were not happy, as they know that the degree was not enough to get a good job.
ISTD Bhopal chapter chairperson Rashmi Gupta said that ISTD is working towards creating an opportunity with different stakeholders to review the work as well as other initiative that have been carried out by public and private sectors on skill development. She said the conference aims to explore questions that link the skill development initiatives and ambitious strategies for skill development in India.
Those, who were honoured on the occasion for their outstanding work in the field of Skill Development included Narendra Dasra of Natural Resource Management and Commonwealth; Shashank Sharma of Swami Ambrish Chaitanya Samiti, Vidisha; Rahul Thapak of Ask Horizon Education and Technology; Shiv Kumar of Sure Foundation; Jitesh Trivedi from Unique Call Solutions; Vijay Patel of Flair Education Development & Welfare Society; Pratap of Amulet Education Services and Aditya Dubey from Apollo Education Samiti.