Now, Odisha adds agriculture, allied sectors to skilling initiatives

Odisha's skill development universe is set to get wider as the government intends to bring in agriculture and allied sectors such as fishing and dairy farming under its ambit. Skilling efforts for agriculture assume importance as over two-thirds of the state's population depends on the sector for its livelihood.  

"So far, our short-term skilling initiatives have been limited to the services sector, primarily aimed at creating a pool of trained electricians and plumbers. Now, our skill development initiatives would also cover agriculture and allied activities," a government official said.

Recently, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the country's first skill museum within the premises of the government-owned Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Cuttack. This innovative museum has been designed to inspire youths and inculcate in them the vision to foresee future technological needs, besides developing skills to meet demand. Spread over 2,600 square feet, the museum showcases a multitude of skills and aims to equip students with an array of them. 

The state government plans to establish skill museums in other ITIs in a phased manner.  

Skill development is identified as one of the state's focus areas. With a commitment to imparting skill training to the youth, the state government has formed the Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA), an apex body with the primary objective of providing employable skills to 630,000 youths by 2018-19. The agency, headed by Subroto Bagchi, co-founder of IT firm MindTree, guides, implements, coordinates and oversees all skill development programmes in the state to ensure quality skill training standards and sustained employability of the trained youths. The agency aims to provide an outstanding skilled workforce comparable to the best in the world.     

Through OSDA, the state government is taking up various interventions to boost skill development. OSDA has initiated and taken a number of steps to meet skilling targets as envisaged in the Chief Minister Employment Guarantee Programme and the broader policy of the state from time to time. The state government has set a target to train 1.1 million youths by 2019-20.