Assam government preps up to empower youth and deliver quality skill training
Assam government preps up to empower youth and deliver quality skill training. Mainu Dekha is a 27-year-old resident of Assam who wishes to become an entrepreneur someday. Belonging from a poor family, where her father is a carpenter she works an office and accounts in-charge in a steel and sanitary item showroom.
And it is not just her. There are thousands of others who want to establish themselves just like her. And to cater to their dreams the Assam government has constituted the North East Skill Centre (NESC) in Guwahati in collaboration with the ITES, Singapore to enhance the international standard and quality skill in the state.
The Skill Centre will train 400 candidates annually in various services of gaining importance like Food and Beverage, Housekeeping, Retail and Beauty and Wellness.
Empowering girls to aspire big, overcoming challenges posed by social stigma and deep-rooted gender disparity will be ASDM’s priority.
To enhance the possibilities, A mobile application named DAKSHA (Digital Access to Knowledge and Skilled Human Resource of Assam) will be launched by the state government to bring all stakeholders in one platform. This application will monitor all the training centres online and shall function in real-time.
The Assam Skill Development Mission was brought to function in effect from January 2017. Since then it is working with the vision of employing more number of unemployed youth and delivering quality skill training to boost the state economy.
An approval to train 47,218 students during 2017-2020 in the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna under the ASDM has already been approved by the GOI.
At present, there are 358 training centres under the ASDM and 388 training centres under PMKVY all over Assam.
During this financial year, the Assam government has set a target to train 6 lakhs students, mobilize 30 lakhs youths, place 2000 overseas and establish 1000 training centres under ASDM.
The ASDM has signed MOU with 26 different Sector Skill Council for the betterment of and smooth running of all the schemes.
An online registration portal www.asdmonline.co.in has also been launched and more than 67,000 trainees have been registered as of yet.
The ASDM has got industrial proposals to make 11 Advanced Skill Training Centre, which will be envisaged as sector-specific training centres. The training would be of international standard and benchmarking or so the government plans to accomplish.
The good news is that youth from extremism-affected districts are showing increasing interest in skill training and are registering for the trainings.
Kakoli Bora, 25 and a resident of Kampur village of Nagaon district, has been empowered by a similar skill training to join a microfinance company where she earns around Rs 20,000 a month as an Assistant Manager.
However, like all others, this too is not without challenges. The primary challenge is people’s perception of viewing skill trainings as the last resort for someone who has not opted for or progressed in the formal academic system.
Other challenges include the paucity of trainers, lack of adequate financial support and mismatch between demand and supply at the sectorial and spatial levels. Collaboration with all ministries/schemes/
Once these challenges are overcome the ASDM will prove to become a most successful step in the way to empower and employ youth.
