Punjab Fully Committ to Use Rs 200 Crore Allocated by GoI for Upgrading 76 ITIs - Mr Madan Mohan Mittal

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Chandigarh 24^th April:- Punjab Govt is fully geared up to utilise the fund allocation of Rs 200 crore i.e, Rs 2.5 crore per ITI given by Director General of Employment & Training (DGE&T), Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India (GoI) for upgrading its 76 ITIs under PPP mode. It is even more heartening that, out of these, 45 are women ITIs and a major chunk of funds would be provided to 29 women ITIs in the first three years, said Madan Mohan Mittal, Minister of Technical Education and Industry & Commerce, Punjab while addressing an Orientation Workshop organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Punjab Govt at CII NR headquarters in sector 31 A here today. It aimed to draw a roadmap for upgrading the 76 Punjab Govt ITIs.

Madan Mohan Mittal added that the scheme: Upgradation of 1396 Govt ITIs under PPP Mode of (DGE&T), GoI wherein GoI gives interest free loan to ITIs which is repayable only after 10 years in installments spread over next 20 years is very significant, considering the immense skill requirements of the country. Various positive changes brought out in the scheme to enhance the freedom of Institute Management Committees (IMCs) of the ITIs, led by industry members are a welcome step. Our Govt is fully committed to support the IMCs of ITIs in producing the best talent from the state. He announced that we would soon come up with 12 Multi- skill development centres across the state which would cater to modern skilling requirements as per latest industry needs.

Informing about state's efforts, he said that to achieve our aim of meeting industry's skill requirements and providing seats to each and every student interested in skill training, we have adopted a four pronged strategy in Punjab. We have launched a web portal especially for skilled youth where industry and candidates can enrol themselves regarding various jobs. Till now, 5 lakh people have visited the portal and 10, 000 students have got placements through it.  In addition, we also arrange numerous campus visits and job fairs in association with various companies and associations like CII. These initiatives placed 25,000 students across Punjab last year. Further, we charge a minimum fee of Rs 3,000 per year from ITI students to ensure that there is no monetary burden on the poor youth willing to undertake skill education.

Rajender Guleria, Chairman-IMC, ITI Nalagarh & Co Chairman, CII NR Special Task Force on Skills, Education & Entrepreneurship Development shared that skill development is the top priority of CII as well. CII members have adopted 131 ITIs in north India and 14 in Punjab. CII is very concerned about the quality of skill education being provided. Hence we organise a lot of faculty development programs and meets to train the trainers and share the best practices.