Odisha to set up advanced skill training institutes

In its bid to impart skill training to about two lakh youths in the next five years, the Odisha government today decided to set-up eight Advance Skill Development Training Institutes (ASTIs) in different places of the state.
This was discussed in the First General Body meeting of Odisha Skill Development Society (OSDS) held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary A P Padhi.
"It was decided to set up eight Skill Training Institutes in different parts of the state out of which six will on be on demonstration mode with major investment from the government and and two other on PPP mode," skill development secretary L N Gupta told reporters after the meeting.

The places which have been identified to house ASTIs are Angul, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Jeypore, Bolangir, Jharsuguda and Rourkela.
These institutes would impart skill training in 142 courses of 12 priority sectors of the government, Gupta said adding the scheme targets to train two lakh youths, impart advanced and finishing skills to 50,000 ITI pass outs and support skill training to 5,000 people for self employment.
Besides, customised skill up gradation training and certification would be provided to 25,000 skilled workforce in their respective trades under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) previsions, he said.

Gupta said the targeted group of the scheme includes unemployed IT pass outs, unemployed engineers, general graduates and polytechnic graduates. The project has been designed for five years and the estimated cost was around Rs 1,051 crore out of which the state government would provide one-third and the rest would be availed from Asian Development Bank as loan.

The Odisha Skill Development Society (OSDS) would be the nodal agency for implementation of the project and a General Body has been formed under chairmanship of the Chief Secretary for the purpose with representatives from Banks, Industries, Centre and agencies concerned. The Executive Committee has been formed under the chairmanship of the Development Commissioner.
Today's meeting also decided to constitute two sub-committees - Civil Construction Sub-Committee and Procurement Sub-Committee to look into various technical and financial aspects.