Ex-defence personnel to be used as skill trainers: Rudy

The Union minister also said that govt is also planning to use the closed down colleges as skill development centres

The central government is addressing the acute shortage of trainers who are needed to realise its plan to skill one crore young people every year, Union Minister of State Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy said here on Friday.

"I admit that there is huge shortage of resource persons or trainers to provide skill development training to people," Rudy, the skill development and entrepreneurship minister, told reporters after a parliamentary consultative meeting here.

To address the shortage, his ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Defence Ministry, he said.

The MoU envisions using the talents of 60,000 defence personnel retiring from their jobs annually and orienting them to become skill trainers.

"We have to train the workforce of the country to become dividend of the world," said the minister.

Against the target of training one crore people that 24 central ministers had set for themselves, his ministry would account for training 14 lakh people annually, Rudy said.

Multi-skill development centres would come up in all districts of the country under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, he said.

Rudy said vocational education would be introduced at high school level.

The government was also planning to use the closed down colleges as skill development centres, Rudy added.