J&K gears up for UT-wide Skilling Mission

Srinagar, Aug 19: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo Tuesday chaired a meeting to take assessment of the progress made in his initiative of creating the requisite skilling ecosystem across J&K envisaged to ensure ‘Skilling for All’ as per the capabilities of each section of the population in an inclusive manner.A statement issued here said that those who attended this meeting includes Commissioner Secretary, Labour and Employment, MD, Skill Development Mission, DG, Budget, Director, L&E and other concerned officers. Applauding the role of the Department, the Chief Secretary observed that it is quite satisfying to note that the department had come up with the initial blueprint of the skilling plan in the shortest possible timeframe after the holding of the stakeholders’ conference here in the month of July. He termed it promising and a sure way of moving ahead. He also encouraged them to keep this momentum intact till the objectives are not realised here. He further underscored the need of consulting all the stakeholders for discussing the framework for incorporation of their insights as well. He advised for holding multi-player discourses to make this skilling plan more robust and effective in achieving its outcomes. He suggested for holding deliberations with the local higher educational institutions, IIT/IIM Jammu, Agricultural Universities, NABARD, J&K Bank besides others for making the initiative more effective on ground. During this meeting the Secretary, L&E, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan threw light on the different steps taken in the direction of creating a robust skilling plan for the UT as envisioned and directed by the Chief Secretary previously. The Secretary went on to elucidate that recently a two-day conference on the theme of ‘Transforming Skilling Ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir’ was held in which seven government departments, six industry partners, four academic institutions and over 100 delegates gave their valuable suggestions that had been documented into a comprehensive report for framing of an effective strategy here.Moreover, the annual technological festival and a competition named ‘Techniche’ and ‘Technotholon’ respectively are going to be part of this initial programme to enhance the appetite of our students towards innovation, creativity and skill development. The same is going to be organised by the government in close collaboration with IIT Jammu. In colleges a ‘Career Launch pad’ for youth had been contemplated. It features imparting basic and advanced domain based skills like that of website designing, digital marketing, data analytics, green skills, tourism related skills to youth enrolled there. The same are going to be further augmented by the ‘College Finishing Skills’ encompassing a 3-month long boot camp to enhance their CV making and interview preparation skills at the end. Additionally, the skilling is going to be converged with apprenticeship and internships with credit points for skill courses to be the part of each degree programme offered by these institutions of learning. Another part of this programme is the offering of ‘Udaan Scholarship’ to the meritorious students. This includes extending of incentives to them for seeking coaching for appearing in competitive exams like JEE/NEET/IAS/JKAS/SSB and others. This would be achieved in collaboration with PM-NAPS and PM-Internship schemes. Timelines for all these steps had been delineated to make the targets achievable in phased yet in a sure way after moving forward with objectives set under this mission. Later, the Chief Secretary released a comprehensive report consolidating the key insights and recommendations from the two-day conference on ‘Transforming Skilling Ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir’ held here on 16th and 17th of July for circulation among all the stakeholders.