Mamata speaks about Utkarsh Bangla on World Youth Skills Day

Kolkata: On the World Youth Skills Day, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spoke about the state government's Utkarsh Bangla scheme that ensures skill development of lakhs of youths every year.

In a tweet on Sunday, the Chief Minister tweeted: "Today is World Youth Skills Day. On February 16, 2016, our Govt launched the 'Utkarsh Bangla' scheme for skill development in the state with a target of training about 6 lakh youths every year."

Stating the helpfulness of the scheme for common people, the Chief Minister further stated in the tweet: "The scheme won the SKOCH Skill Development Award 2018."

It may be mentioned that Utkarsh Bangla is a short-term placement-based skill development programme, in which 6 lakh youths get trained every year. Paschim Banga Society for Skill Development (PBSSD) under the state Technical Education and Training department trains 3 lakh youths while the other 3 lakh get trained by the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), polytechnics, vocational schools and training centres.

This comes at the time when the state government has taken steps to ensure that youths do not need to travel long distances to reach an ITI and initiatives have also been taken to set up ITIs in each of the 341 blocks. The scheme has helped many youths to bag jobs as it makes youths ready to join an industry.

It is one of the dream projects of the Chief Minister and initiatives have been taken so that it reaches the grassroot level.