Plugging the gap: Will upgrading 1,000 ITIs solve the skilling challenge?

While presenting the Budget, Finance Minister put 'employment and skilling' at the forefront. She also proposed aligning the course content and design of ITIs to the skill needs of the industry

Aravind’s parents think he has wasted the last three years.

On the face of it, they would be wrong. The 20-year-old last year collected his diploma in mechanical trade from the government’s Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in West Delhi.

However impressive as that sounds, Aravind has not landed the kind of job he dreamt of.

“I have been interviewed and rejected by multiple firms. My CV has done the rounds of all the local component manufacturers here, without much success,” he says.

His classmates echo the despondency, and so do the droves passing out of other ITIs. Major industry recruiters, they