Shillong: On Saturday, Chairman, National Skills Development Agency (NSDA), S Ramadorai who is in Shillong to take an overview of the skills building vacuum in Meghalaya, visited the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) at Rynjah. He was appalled at the state of the Institute.
“With such an Institute it is no wonder that young people are not keen to join it. They would rather run away elsewhere and look for other skills development institutes,” Ramadorai said in a meeting with young entrepreneurs at the Heritage Hotel, Tripura Castle.
Ramadorai felt that the ITI has become redundant with outdated skills being provided to aspiring candidates who had no choice but to join this Government institution.
It may be reminded that the media had several times drawn the attention of the Government to the pathetic condition of the ITI which had literally been left to go to seed.
Those accompanying Ramadorai pointed out that the Rynjah ITI is the better ones despite being in a decrepit shape. They said the ITIs in the districts might be in worse shape.
Ramadorai is on a three-day visit to Meghalaya and had extensive interface with entrepreneurs and government officials about the State’s skill building capacity.
On Saturday evening, NSDA Chairman also met with two young entrepreneurs, William Diengdoh and Mark Stone Laitflang. Diengdoh briefed Ramadorai on the impediments facing entrepreneurs promoting animal husbandry in Meghalaya despite the potential.
Animal Husbandry which is one of the nine missions in the Meghalaya Basin Development Project is yet to take off. In fact of the nine missions the only one that has shown some activity is the Fisheries Department.
Mark Stone gave a brief about the need to look at capacity of skill development consultants to provide holistic human development training and not building only certain skills sets.
“We need a tracking system to check the number of drop outs who are placed at different work places across the metros of the country.”
Earlier at a luncheon meet at Heritage Hotel Ramadorai met with State Government officials, industry representatives and the faculty of IIM Shillong.
Chairman FICCI North East Advisory Council, and Investment Advisor to the Chief Minister of Assam, Ranjit Borthakur, accompanied Ramadorai and his team to Shillong.