Punjab plans 50 colleges, 2,000 rural centres to skill girls

Punjab government today said it will set up 50 skill-training colleges for girls under the Skill India Mission while another 2,000 centres will come up at village level to hone their skills.
The decision was taken here at a high-level meeting, presided over by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal attended by Union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and state cabinet ministers Bikram Singh Majithia, Sikander Singh Maluka and Surjit Singh Rakhra among others.
These colleges will be governed by the Panjab University, Punjabi University, Guru Nanak Dev University and will run short term courses, said an official release.

The colleges will be set up at a cost of Rs 20 lakh each. It will help 6,000 students to launch their start-ups, self-employment ventures or setup their own units to become entrepreneurs and job providers, it said.
Speaking on the occasion, Badal said under the 'Skill India Mission', the state government has chalked out various short term courses, ranging from one month to three months duration, for unemployed girls to become self-reliant by establishing shops/units leading to the empowerment of rural women.
The state universities would design such courses/training programmes in consultation with the departments of Industry and Commerce, Technical Education and Industrial Training, Labour, Agriculture and Food Processing, he said.

Badal asked the chief secretary to supervise in devising, designing and selection of these courses with the help of various departments and training institutes as per the requirements of different types of industries.