| In a move to alleviate the problem of unemployment in the country, the Skill Develpment (SD) Ministry has proposed a plan to unite the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry's wing All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and SD Ministry. According to Skill Development Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy engineering and skills training should be integrated for students to be employment ready. "Engineering has to become a part of this whole skills ecosystem. At some point of time AICTE should be considered as a part of the skilling ecosystem. But it shall take off," he said on Wednesday addressing media persons on a state skill ministers' meet held at New Delhi.
He also confessed about the skepticism that the idea might generate. "It is a radical idea and may get dismissed by academicians but that system has not actually worked." The Ministry aims at training 50 crore people by 2022 and make them skillful. Rudy also plans to bridge the gap between engineering and skill development. "Out of 18 lakh engineering seats, nine lakh are vacant and this indicates a gap in the supply and demand," he said. Rudy also held discussions with HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar in this regard and announced that Javadekar has shown interest and is keen in taking it forward. The Skill Development Ministry is also planning to get a parliament approval to increase the Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in the country by 2500. "Skilling is very close to the Prime Minister and I depend on states for its success," he added. Currently there are 14000 ITIs that are unevenly spread across the country. Integrating the Directorate General of Training and National Skills Development Corporation is also on the top of Rudy's list in order to make the skills departments function more efficiently. |