Delhi govt to set up 25 world class skill centres soon

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will soon set up 25 world class skill centres for technical education to students from the weaker economic background, which will offer one-year courses focusing on immediate job placement of the students. At present, Delhi now has only one such centre.

Talking about the skill centres in November last year, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said, "The economy is wavering... It is passing through a challenging phase following demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. We will work for the creation of maximum job opportunities for the youth."

The existing world class skill centre, located at the ITI in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar, offers four one-year courses in Hospitality Operations, Retail Services, Software Testing and Finance.

"The institute achieved 100 per cent placement, something that comes as an important push to the government's efforts to offer skill-based training to ensure that students' are employable after the course. Out of the 180 students, 89 are from the North Eastern states," said a Delhi government official.

"This will allow the students who have completed a diploma course to transfer to a university for an undergraduate degree, while retaining credits for the course already completed.

"In addition, courses run by the Tourism Department and the Hindi Academy would also be boosted," he said.

The courses offered by these centres will evolve as per the requirements of the industry.

Earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government had announced that by January this year, around 30,000 students will be able to enrol in various professional courses at Delhi government-run skill centres.

However, the plan could not come to fruition due to various technical reasons.

"We have seen that more and more students are looking for a job after Class XII, which has led us to think that such courses will be very important for the students," said another official.

The government also plans to promote trade and industry in the national Capital to boost employment.

There are around 36,000 vacancies in various departments of the Delhi government and the Chief Minister had written to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to direct the agencies concerned to start recruitment drives. However, the recruitment is yet to start.