New Delhi: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Monday said that the demographic situation of the country, especially with a large number of people in the young age group should be utilized towards advantages.
“The country needs to harness its demographic dividends by providing skills to the youth,” Sangma said.
He was addressing the National Skill Development Corporation’s 7th edition of its Partners’ Meet here where more than 650 stakeholders from the skills ecosystem across the country, participated.
In Meghalaya the Government is specifically focusing on encouraging the youth to gain skills for self-employment and entrepreneurship.
“We have also focused on the women of our State and have established a number of multi-facility centres in specific regions and villages which will help provide them skill trainings,” he said.
Only last week, Rajya Sabha member from the State, Wansuk Syiem, had raised the issue of skill development through a special mention.
“North East is a storehouse of human resources and the same should be developed by imparting various skills to prevent the ongoing brain drain from the region,” she had said.
The two-day bi-annual event had Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of State – Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs & Sports, as its chief guest. V.K. Duggal, Governor of Manipur, was the guest of honour along with the Meghalaya Chief Minister.
The event had participants across 31 sector skill councils, 136 training partners and representations from employers and key ministries from Government of India.
Delivering the inaugural address, Sonowal said, “The target for NSDC is to skill 3.3 million this year and I am sure the team will ensure that they are met. It is absolutely necessary to ensure that the industry be made a major partner in skilling India and NSDC has been extremely successful in engaging and exponentially growing the efforts of the private sector.”
Commenting on the newly-formed Ministry for Skill Development, Sonowal further said that the Government is in the process of activating the Ministry and is currently consulting with all major stakeholders including the private sector.
“We believe an effective and sustainable partnership between private and public sector would be crucial for this ambitious mission to be achieved,” he said.
Talking about the skills landscape in Manipur, Duggal said, “There is an urgent and imperative need to close the gap between the manpower demand and supply across all states. We have immensely talented youth in the North-Eastern states who have great potential in the hospitality, IT and healthcare sectors.”
In a short span of less than five years since NSDC has been operational, more than two million youth have been skilled, more than half of whom are gainfully employed today.
NSDC has approved the setting up of 136 training organisations with the potential to train over 83 million people over the next 10 years.
