Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday said the Skill Development Centres are the key to churn out industry-trained professionals so that fresh college pass-outs can get best of the employment opportunities. Badal, presiding over global summit on industry-academic interface held at Baba Farid Group of Institutes (BFGI), said that industry and academy are complementary to each other as industry provides resources for the sustenance of academic institutions whereas academia provides brains and brawn to run industries.
“The common goal of both industry and academia is sustainable development,” he said while appreciating the efforts of Baba Farid Group for not only uplifting standard of education but also helping to provide skilled manpower giving fillip to industrial growth in Punjab. Badal said that in line with National Skill Development Policy, Punjab has set up an empowered State Skill Development Mission to bring synergy, scale and effective oversight in implementation of various skill development initiatives in the State such as the one coming up at BFGI.
The State Government will be setting up more than 2,500 skill development centres in State in association with private sector with a target of imparting skill training to one lakh youth annually. These centers will be set up over a period of next five years, each of them covering about four-five villages.