UP to set up Vocational Education Board

Move aimed at making state workforce more employable.

The Uttar Pradesh government will soon set up a Vocational Education Board to churn out quality trained hands and make the state workforce more ‘employable’.

The new body would ensure quality education in the industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics to prepare for the future needs as per the projected requirement of 500 million certified and skilled technicians in India by 2022.

“The board will have the mandate of preparing uptodate syllabus and curriculum for the ITIs and polytechnics, accreditation of training institutes and certification,” Alok Ranjan, UP principal secretary, vocational and technical education department, said.

While the UP Technical University would focus on engineering colleges, the Vocational Education Board will be for the ITIs and polytechnics.

At present, the state ITIs and polytechnics respectively produce roughly 25,000 and 50,000 trained workforce annually. However, they lack the required skill sets in today’s changed economic and business environment.

Earlier, Ranjan addressed a seminar on ‘Enhancing Employability through Skill Development & Knowledge Economy’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

The session, attended by senior state government officials and members of industry, provided a platform to analyse the skill gaps existing in UP and come up with time-bound solutions.

Rajan said almost 95 per cent of the workmen in the unorganised sector in the state were unskilled. A core group formed under the state chief secretary has identified segments such as construction, hospitality, health, IT, power, sugar, and agro-processing as the priority areas for skill development, he informed.

“A majority of Indian workforce does not possess marketable skills, which is an impediment in getting employment and improving their economic condition,” CII UP state council chairman Ramesh Suri said.

Meanwhile, the state government has thrown open its infrastructure, including schools, ITIs and polytechnics, to the private sector and non-governmental organisations to run vocational training programmes after teaching hours.

CII UP state council vice-chairman Jayant Krishna emphasised that UP must have its share in the country’s talent pool in proportion to its population. “But, we must also provide as many employment opportunities, otherwise the talent pool would continue to move to other places and UP would remain neglected,” he underlined.