Bhubaneswar: In an effort to produce 8 lakh skilled youths in the next three years, the Orissa Skill Development Authority (OSDA) Friday advised various departments to prepare annual action plans for skill training for 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Skill development and technical education secretary SK Singh who attended the OSDA governing council’s first meeting urged all departments under it to submit their actions plan soon.
OSDA chairman Subrato Bagchi said the guiding principle of skill development in the state should be to create separate identity under the brand name of ‘Skilled in Orissa’ across the Globe.
Skill development and technical education minister Sanjay Das Burma emphasised the need to strengthen district employment exchanges as the district employment officers have been appointed as nodal officers for implementation of skill training programme at the district-level.
He asked the concerned officials to take necessary steps for early roll out of the proposed eight Advance Skill Development Training Institutes (ASTIs) in different places in the state.
The government has decided to set up the ASTIs at Angul, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Jeypore, Bolangir, Jharsuguda and Rourkela.
These institutes would impart skill training in 142 courses under 12 priority sectors and it was targeted to train two lakh youths through these institutes.
The project has been designed for five years and the estimated cost was around `1,051crore out of which the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide `662 crore while the state government will contribute the remaining amount, sources said.
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