Akhilesh urges private sector to create jobs

Asserts that unless youth are provided with good job opportunities at the right time, India will be unable to reap demographic dividends

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday exhorted the private sector to create fresh job opportunities for the youth.

Though the state government, he said, was also striving for generating employment, the contribution of the private sector and industry was imperative for jobs to all.

Yadav said unless the youth were provided with good job opportunities, India would be not be able to reap demographic dividends and would soon stand in the league of the ageing nations.

He was addressing a programme hosted by the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission (UPSDM) under the state department of vocational education and skill development.

Meanwhile, the state government signed flexi memorandum of understanding with reputed private companies to provide vocational training and employment to those enrolled with government-run Industrial Training Institutes and polytechnics. Some of these companies are Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company (which operates Café Coffee Day), Super House, Laxmi Cotsyn, Zicom and Karvy. The government had signed such flexi-MoUs with some companies earlier as well.

These companies have committed not only to train several thousands of the state youth, but provide employment to most of these candidates after successful completion of their modules.

About 1,200 training centres had been set up across 75 districts in the state and 100,000 candidates are currently undergoing vocational training. The Mission provides for training under 254 modules in 38 sectors.

A national skill development policy was launched in 2009 with the aim of ‘skilling’ 500 million by 2022. Uttar Pradesh aims to skill over four million youth by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17).

So far, 4.6 million youth in the state have been registered under UPSDM, which accords primacy to the minorities, scheduled caste, women and physically challenged candidates.