Centre to launch a pilot project for skill development in North East

To impart job skills suited for the international job market, the Centre has come up with a skill development programme project, developed by the Union Ministry for Overseas India Affairs (MOIA), for the eight North Eastern states.

The project aims at putting systems, processes and infrastructure in place for standardised training, testing and internationally acceptable certification to enhance the employability of the people of North Eastern Region of India.

A meeting was held to consult and discuss the skill training initiative programme in Guwahati yesterday.

A Didar Singh, Secretary of MOIA, said that the ministry’s initiative for the skill training in Nortah Eastern states draws inspiratin from the announcement made by the Prime Minister during his inaugural address at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in 2011. The PM had made announcement for the setting up of a Centre of Excellence in the region for the skill training to facilitate overseas employment.

Singh said that the MOIA has worked with Indian Council for Overseas Employment (ICOE) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to finalise the programme and implement the same in all the eight North Eastern states. 

He also said that in the course of the implementation of the programme in North East, the ministry will “figure out a nationwide rollout plan for building standard framework for imparting skill training for international job market”.

The IOM has been identified to implement this project and the knowledge partners include IndiaSkills and Aspire Human Capital Pvt. Ltd in public-private-parnership mode. Under the project, seven international vocational qualifications will be developed with focus on short, relevant and effective modules that will help potential migrants in the overseas job markets.

The project will work on the basis of two models, in the form of franchise and university embedded model which will use standard training, testing and certification to increase the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

This internationally recognised certification will ensure that trainees are employable anywhere in the world.