To give fillip to skill development in the State, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday announced opening of three Skill Centres of Excellence for medical and paramedical in Government medical colleges at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot. Six Multi-Skill Development Centres would also come up at ludhiana, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar and Ropar.
The decision was taken by Badal in the first meeting of the Governing Council of the Punjab Skill Development Mission (PSDM) held here, an official spokesman said. Envisaging this step as a move towards evolving Punjab as a pool of skilled manpower, Badal announced a sum of Rs15 crore for the three Skill Centres of Excellence and asked the PSDM to grant Rs5 crore each to the six upcoming Multi-Skill Development Centres in the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs).
Badal also gave a nod to prepare a comprehensive plan to open Skill Development Centre for construction workers in the Majha, Doaba and Malwa zone. He asked the Principal Secretary labour to work out modalities after consultation with the leading construction and infrastructure companies on the basis of their requirements.
A hi-tech Transport Skill Centre would be opened at Jalandhar by the Transport department on the lines of the such existing institutes at Mahuana in Muktsar district, he said. Emphasising the need to provide boarding and lodging facilities to the youth who are keen to join these centres, the Chief Minister said each Skill Development Centre would be provided with hostel accommodation to facilitate the training in a hassle-free and result-oriented manner.
Taking part in the deliberations, the Chief Minister underscored the need to focus the modules/courses of skill development training related to the nature and requirement of local industry and suggested opening of garment, textile and hosiery Skill development centre at ludhiana and leather centre at Jalandhar. The Chief Minister asked the PSDC to come out with the composite proposal in the format of project report to impart technical and skill training to at least 50,000 youth to enable them to be gainfully employed in different sectors.
Briefing the Chief Minister about the perspective of the Mission, the Member Secretary of the PSDC, Rakesh Verma apprised him about the various skill development schemes being undertaken by the mission in the first phase which have been approved by the steering committee of the mission headed by the Chief Secretary.
He referred to few schemes like Deen Dyal Upadhaya – Grameen Kaushalaya Yojna, Employment through skill training and placement, Recognition of prior learning of construction workers, Skill Development of the wards/ dependents of construction workers, Seekho aur Kamao scheme of National Minority Development and Finance Corporation besides opening Skill development component Multi Sectoral Development Project for Minorities in six blocks of Sangrur and Gurdaspur districts.