By our special correspondent
Shillong: The BASIX Academy For Building Lifelong Employability (B-ABLE) in partnership with Nehru Yuva Kendra, National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) and IGNOU (IIVET) certified 58 youth as skilled in Rural Retail Sales and Marketing, Spoken English, Basic Information Technology, Personality Development and Spoken Hindi at a function organised at Youth Hostel here on Monday.
Of the 58, who were trained, 17 are from Garo Hills and a few from Manipur and Nagaland. The programme titled Youth Employability Skill (YES) Project aims to build the skills of youth to make them employable.
The 2nd batch of 58 youth joined the resident programme in December last year.
Sharing their experiences those who passed out of the training programme said they gained confidence and could now communicate and carry themselves with poise through focussed interaction with their peers and mentors.
Briefing the gathering, B-ABLE project manager, Janessiline Pyngrope said in between the programme there were placement interviews from different organisations and a few students were selected for the same.
Of the 58 trainees, 21 got placements in different corporate houses ranging from Raymonds, New Delhi to ITC Chennai and Domino’s Bangalore. At least 5 trainees were absorbed by Saroda Digitech a local computer firm.
Speaking as chief guest at the function, Deputy Commissioner, East Khasi Hills, Sanjay Goyal said India is today a young country where about 40-45 % of the population are in the productive age group of 18-45 years. He urged the youth not to be afraid of venturing outside Meghalaya. ” When you step out into the open world your thinking broadens and your tolerance levels go up. We have problems in society because of the lack of tolerance for one another’s ideas,” Goyal said, adding that it is easy to pick up a gun but more challenging to find a dignified livelihood.
Goyal said in an open economy the youth have to make themselves employable according to the market needs.” We need to restructure the courses in the ITIs and Polytechnics to synchronise with the market needs. The youth must realise that government can no longer provide employment to the burgeoning youth population and permanent jobs are now out of question. People today move in and out of contract jobs and also become self employed, Goyal said.
He also urged the youth to be responsive to the programme since the Government of India is investing about Rs 30,000 per person for this training programme and said, “Don’t let the Government of India money go waste.
Others who spoke at the function included CP Lotha the Zonal Director, Nehry Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Dr Salam D Singh, DYC, NYK Shillong and Ms Weidamon, Registrar of IGNOU, IIVET, Shillong.