Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has directed the Skill Development Mission to complete the entire construction work of five upcoming Multi Skill Development Centres (MSDCs) by the June end.
The MSDCs are coming up at ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Bathinda. The directions were issued so as to enable these centres to begin their maiden skill training session from coming July. Chief Minister, presiding over a meeting on Tuesday evening, asked the Punjab Skill Development Mission, which had been entrusted to run these centres to tie up with the eminent companies and industrial groups to rope in them as training partners to provide the best skill training to the youth according to the needs of the local industry.
Badal also emphasized the need to solicit services of local industrialists and manufacturers to devise special courses to impart skill training so that they could be gainfully employed in the nearby industry.
Chief Minister was apprised that nearly 1,500 to 2,000 students would be imparted skill training in these five centres every year.
These centres were being built at a cost of Rs 60 crore and have been provided with hostel facility, where 500 students could be accommodated.
The officers in the meeting assured the Chief Minister that the construction work of these skill centres at Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Bathinda would be completed by May 31 and ludhiana by June 30.
Badal also informed that the training partners for ludhiana, Amritsar, Bathinda centres had been selected while these would be selected shortly for Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur.
He asked the skill development mission to immediately initiate the work for setting up 200 skill development centres in rural areas within each block of the state. It was informed in the meeting that out of these 200 skill centres, approximately one-third centres were being set up for rural girls in co-educational senior secondary or high schools or exclusively girls schools which would be named ‘Nanhi Chhan Skill Centres’.
The main focus was to enable poor rural youth including rural girls to set up self-employment ventures or for wage employment in private sector.
The Chief Minister asked the officers to launch a pro-active campaign to sensitize the youth and their parents about the significance and relevance of these ultra-modern centres.
He also asked the officers to organize camps in schools regularly to create awareness amongst the students about skill development, who were keen to opt for these training courses.
The Chief Minister also reviewed the progress of three skill development centres being set up in the Government Medical Colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot with cooperation of Health department.
Badal was also informed about the skill development centres in construction sector being set up at Mohali, ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar would be completed by November 2016.