Govt set to integrate skill development with education: Rudy

To improve employability of youths, the government is embarking on a process to integrate skill development with education for which financial assistance would be given to the states, Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy said today.
"In the last 65 years or so, the entire skill eco-system of the country has been killed. It is a major challenge for us to build such an eco-system and the Center is ready to work with the states for this purpose", Rudy said at an event here.
Funds would be given to the states for developing skill sets among the youth for which the ministry has set up a corpus of Rs 32,000 crore provided jointly by World Bank, Prime Minister Kaushal Vikas Yojana and Apprentice Yojana.

Appreciating the Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal for its move to set up more ITIs in the state, Rudy said the Directorate General of Training (DGT) would provide affiliations to these newly set up centres.
"We will be supporting the West Bengal government. We appreciate the passionate efforts of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her bid towards skilling the people of the state", he told reporters on the sidelines of the CII event .
"The DGT will give affiliation to the new ITIs set up in the state," he said.

Stating the ITIs would be moved from the labour ministry to his ministry, Rudy said it was the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who realised the need for a separate approach for developing skills.

"For long, skill development was being looked after by the education ministry and then the HRD ministry. It was Prime Minister Modi who realised the need for a separate ministry for skill," he said.
The Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry had pitched for imparting skill education among students of Classes VII to XII, he added.