Govt to notify new norms for ITIs: Rudy

The government is next month coming out with new standards to improve the quality of training imparted in thousands of ITIs, Skill Development Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said here on Tuesday.

"Next month we are going to notify new norms regarding building, equipment, training which all ITIs will have to conform to,'' Mr Rudy said here addressing a press conference on three years of the Modi government.

Rudy, said the policy makers had over the years done great injustice to the ITIs, leading to deterioration in their quality, but now his ministry was determined to see that the students who came to the institution left it with really equipped persons, both academically and technically.

There were 13,000 ITIs together in the government and privet sectors, and for them the ministry had come out with 48 parameters for their self-grading. Those institutes which volunteer for self-grading as per these parameters would be given full support by the government, Rudy said.

He said the HRD ministry had allowed his ministry to conduct exams for ITI students.

Rudy described his ministry as "really a start up venture as it came into existence only two-and-half-year ago, but it had during this short period put up skill development infrastructure across the country.''

So far, 1.17-crore youth had been trained at these skill development centres, Rudy said while describing industry linkage as the biggest challenge.

He said the government had committed Rs 26,000-crore for the ministry.

The minister said his biggest partnership was with the Indian Army, which was the third largest in the world and whose 55,000 personnel retire every year. The ministry had trained 26,000 retired Army personnel so far.

Rudy also spoke of the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme as very crucial for creation of a skilled workforce. He said the number of apprentices in India was very low as compared to other countries like Germany Japan, etc, but the Government was now taking effective steps to see that companies took in more apprentices.

He also spoke about around a dozen foreign countries, including Germany, France , UK, Australia and China, with whom India had signed MoUs for skilling its workforce.