Badal approves new courses for various skill training development programs

CHANDIGARH : Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today approved new courses and curriculum to be offered to nearly 15,000 youth desirous of seeking skill development training in the various streams annually so as to empower them to be gainfully employed.
Presiding over a meeting here at Chief Minister’s Residence this morning to finalize the courses to impart the best skill training to the unemployed youth as well as up-skilling them in specific fields viz healthcare & paramedics, horticulture, agriculture & allied farming and construction activity, the Chief Minister directed the Secre tary Technical Education to engage the best skill training agencies with proven track record to enhance the capacity building of five upcoming Multi-Skill Development Centres (MSDCs) at Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Bathinda with total intake capacity of 7500 trainees annually.The Chief Minister was apprised in the meeting that apart from these, three skill development centres to impart training in healthcare and paramedics were being established in the government medical colleges of Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot with total intake capacity of 1200 trainees per year. Likewise, 4800 trainees would be provided training in the upcoming construction & building skill development centres at Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar.
Similarly, as many as 900 trainees would be imparted training in specially designed courses related to activities in the field of horticulture, gardening, land-scaping, bee keeping, mushroom cultivation in the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana with a focused approach to promote the much needed program of agriculture diversification in a big way. With all these initiatives in different sectors to promote skill development, the state government would be able to impart training to 14,400 youth under this ambitious program to commence from the next year.
The Chief Minister also gave green signal to initiate a special program to provide on-site training to the workers already employed in different factories with the sole motive to up-skill them in a phased manner. He said that nearly 10,000 such workers would be imparted specialized training as per the needs of local industry in the first phase so as to upgrade their skills in a meaningful and result oriented manner.
The Chief Minister also asked all the concerned departments entrusted with the task of establishing these skill centres to provide hostel facilities to the trainees and must ensure that these hostels were ready in all aspects well before the commencement of these skill training courses.