Bhubaneswar hosts India Skills Regional Competitions (Eastern Chapter) 2018

July 16, 2018

OdishaLIVE Bureau

India Skills

Organized under the aegis of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
225+ participants from 22 states including 7 major States from East India
Announces an array of initiatives to empower the youth of the nation

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) along with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), announced the commencement of India Skills Regional Competitions (Eastern Chapter) 2018 in Bhubaneswar which is one of the biggest skill competition organized by Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India for the eastern region, with great enthusiasm and fervor.

The event also marked the 3^rd anniversary celebration of Skill India Mission, on theoccasion of World Youth Skills Day which is celebrated globally on 15^th July, and witnessed an array of announcement being made to strengthen the skill ecosystem.

The event was inaugurated by Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in the august presence of Dr. KP Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Ms. Jhuthika Patankar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Ms. Sunita Sanghi, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Ms. Jyotsna Sitling, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal, Director General (Training), Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Mr.Rajesh Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.

Skills India East Chapter

India Skills Regional East will showcase 225+ competitors from 22 states competing across 27 skills ranging from Mobile Robotics, Automobile Technology, Cooking, Bricklaying, CNC Milling, Web Design among others. The winners from these competitions will compete at National competition, where they would compete with winners from other regional competitions to win a chance of representing INDIA at World Skills 2019 in Kazan, Russia.

Skills form the foundation for a bright future of the nation. India Skills competitions are designed with an objective to showcase the highest standards of skills in India and motivate youth to considervocational education as a mainstream career option. The initiative will help us identify the best talent who could represent India at the WorldSkills International Competition and bring laurels tothe country.

Over the next 2 days, the event will witness 50+ sector specific exhibitions, conference, seminars and large counselling camps where 50+ professional counsellors will provide career guidance to the youth around various skill development programs at Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra and ITIs.

Dharmendra Pradhan

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the event, Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said, “Skills is not a new concept to our country. It has been recognized since ages. The recently concluded Ratha Yatra processions, in Puri is in itself reflective of a successful skill ecosystem which ensures that year after year, the huge wheeled wooden chariot is built, painted and carved upon with beautiful designs on which the Yatra takes place. This is one small example of the work of skilled professionals. Similarly, in today’s age and technology lead times, we are identifying several new job roles today which are relevant to market.”

“It is imperative that the government and the private sector work hand in hand to ensure a successful skilled ecosystem. We are also partnering with countries like Japan, Germany, UAE to ensure global opportunities of training and employment for India’s youth. We need to ensure convergence at every step to ensure that we engage our youth meaningfully today if we wish to see the New India of our dreams.

I wish all participants the very best for their competition.Iam certain the bests with make our country proud at WorldSkills Competition Kazan 2019,” he further added. The Minister also mentioned that out of the 115 aspirational districts identified, 10 districts are in Orissa which have been identified will be given put special focus with regard to skill development.

Acknowledging the relevance of skill in the country today and the achievements made under the Skill India Mission, Dr K P Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, “It is our double good fortune that we could combine the India Skills Regional Competition – Eastern Chapter 2018 and the celebrations of World Youth Skill Day. We also complete 3 years of Skill India Mission today.

East Zone Skill India

Under the Skill India Mission we are able to annually skill/reskill/Upskill close to 1 crore youth in the country just under central government programs, which is also being positively supplemented by State and Industry efforts towards equipping the youth with the market relevant skill sets.

“One of our bigger achievements has been the aspirational value that we have been able to bring to skills along with scale and standards. This skill revolution needs to be a sprint than a marathon race – one of the most effective programmes in the shortest time line. We are not only skilling people but also creating progression pathways for our youth within the education system and across sectors, by ensuring academic equivalence,”he added.

Recognition of Prior Learning Best in Class Employers

Recognition of Prior Learning or RPL certifies the skills of people with prior experience or those trained informally. Since 2016, the program has benefitted close to 8 lakh people across the country.

To scale up this initiative Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship is launching RPL with Best in Class Employers – an initiative to directly collaborate with reputed employers across various sectors. The event saw commitment made by a few Sector Skill Councils and prominent employers across these sectors. A few are listed below:

Hydrocarbon Sector: Target to certify more than 9 Lakh candidates across 3 Employers

Retail Sector –Target to certify more than 5 Lakh candidates across 60+ Employers

Tourism Sector –Target to certify more than 5 Lakh candidates across 24 Employers

Life Sciences Sector -Target to certify more than 75 thousand candidates across more than 21 employers

Plumbing Sector –Informal Sectors are also coming together to collaborate for this ambitious initiative in a big way

The occasion also saw the launch of a portal for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) program which will provide a platform for individuals to get information of RPL Centers across the country and register for an upcoming batch to get RPL certified. MSDE also signed an MoU with Facebook on the occasion, to leverage their platform for youth empowerment

Operational Framework for Apprenticeship

Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship have brought about comprehensive reforms in the Apprenticeship Act in 2014 & the Apprenticeship rules in 2015 to make apprenticeship more industry friendly.

The MSDE launched an Operational Framework for Apprenticeship which provides operational guidelines listing out roles & responsibilities of the stakeholders at the National and State level. This also provides detailed information regarding the execution of National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) which incentivize corporates to engage apprentices across different sectors. The event also saw launch of Guidelines for Training of Trainer (ToT) and Training of Assessors for short-term skill development programs to further strengthen the teaching pedagogy in the ecosystem.

This was done in partnership with Temasek Foundation and technical support from Singapore Polytechnic. These would enable convergence of multiple stakeholders such as DGT, NSDC, SSCs, Skill universities and private partners for TOT and TOA programs.

Skill India Portal

In addition to these, the Hon’ble Minister also announced the launch of Skill India Portal. This improved skill development management system will provide an end-to-end solution to bring all the stakeholders in the skill ecosystem to one single, unified platform.The Skill India portal aims to bring the entire candidate and training partner database on a single platform. This would be a unified interface which would act as an integrated platform for all skilling initiatives and schemes run by various Central Ministries, state governments, NSDC and Corporates among others.

Observing the Swachhta Pakhwada

To accelerate the efforts of achieving universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on sanitation, MSDE also collaborated with Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation to organize Swachhta Pakhwada across all its departments, including 14000+ ITIs and 7000+Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY) training centers and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras(PMKK) across the country. A pledge was taken along with the Minister at the event, committing their time and will to ensure a clean India.

India Skills

India Skills Competition is India’s first national skills competition which provides skilled youth an opportunity to showcase their skills and train with the best in the industry. The winners from these competitions represent India at the biennial World Skills International Competitions, where they get an opportunity to benchmark their skills with their counterparts from all over the world. The initiative has been instrumental in raising the overall awareness and standards of skill training in India.