J&K gears up for UT-wide Skilling Mission

Srinagar, Aug 19: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo Tuesday chaired a meeting to take assessment of the progress made in his initiative of creating the requisite skilling ecosystem across J&K envisaged to ensure ‘Skilling for All’ as per the capabilities of each section of the population in an inclusive manner.
Those who attended this meeting includes Commissioner Secretary, Labour & Employment; MD, Skill Development Mission; DG, Budget; Director, L&E and other concerned officers.
Applauding the role of the Department, the Chief Secretary observed that it is quite satisfying to note that the department had come up with the initial blueprint of the skilling plan in the shortest possible timeframe after the holding of the stakeholders conference here in the month of July. He termed it promising and a sure way of moving ahead. He also encouraged them to keep this momentum intact till the objectives are not realized here.
He further underscored the need of consulting all the stakeholders for discussing the framework for incorporation of their insights as well. He advised for holding multi-player discourses to make this skilling plan more robust and effective in achieving its outcomes. He suggested for holding deliberations with the local higher educational institutions, IIT/IIM Jammu, Agricultural Universities, NABARD, J&K Bank besides others for making the initiative more effective on ground.
During this meeting the Secretary, L&E, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan threw light on the different steps taken in the direction of creating a robust skilling plan for the UT as envisioned and directed by the Chief Secretary previously.
The Secretary went on to elucidate that recently a 2-day conference on the theme of ‘Transforming Skilling Ecosystem in Jammu & Kashmir’ was held in which 7 government departments, 6 industry partners, 4 academic institutions and over 100 delegates gave their valuable suggestions that had been documented into a comprehensive report for framing of an effective strategy here.
He further informed that the conference was followed by multi-stakeholder discussion in which the institutions like that of IIT, IIM and other institutions participated for discerning of steps to be followed next. The Department also embarked on the task of analysing the available tools and equipments for implementation of the future steps, he added.
Further it was revealed that the Department also went on to devise the surveys for appraising itself about the strengthens and weaknesses of its institutions, requirements of industries and support to be garnered from them and essentially to know about the aspirations of youth, their skills, feedback about curricula, their entrepreneurial interests and the barriers they had faced till now.
The roadmap, it was revealed, pivots upon 4 different pillars which are envisaged to bring out desired results here in J&K. First of all, it was given out that the plan envisages skilling all the employable individuals. For that the step conceived is the introduction of foundational vocational courses right from the schools itself. This as per the strategy aims at introducing basic modules related to coding & AI, imparting communication & life skills, problem solving & innovation besides a career pathway module to expose the students to multi-career paths through content availability and alumni instructions.
Moreover the annual technological festival and a competition named ‘Techniche’ and ‘Technotholon’ respectively are going to be part of this initial programme to enhance the appetite of our students towards innovation, creativity and skill development. The same is going to be organised by the government in close collaboration with IIT Jammu.
In colleges a ‘Career Launch pad’ for youth had been contemplated. It features imparting basic and advanced domain based skills like that of website designing, digital marketing, data analytics, green skills, tourism related skills to youth enrolled there. The same are going to be further augmented by the ‘College Finishing Skills’ encompassing a 3-month long boot camp to enhance their CV making and interview preparation skills at the end.
Additionally the skilling is going to be converged with apprenticeship and internships with credit points for skill courses to be the part of each degree programme offered by these institutions of learning.
Another part of this programme is the offering of ‘Udaan Scholarship’ to the meritorious students. This includes extending of incentives to them for seeking coaching for appearing in competitive exams like JEE/NEET/IAS/JKAS/SSB and others. This would be achieved in collaboration with PM-NAPS and PM-Internship schemes.
One more feature of this pillar is the skilling of our youth for international placements. The programme involves training curricula based upon international occupation standards like that of NSQF mapped to NSDC here. It also envisages facilitation for globally recognized certifications like that for IELTS, NCLEX, AWS, CompTIA etc along with provisions for learning of foreign languages and establishment of international placement cells here.
With respect to imparting industry-ready tech skills it was given out that the steps involve curriculum upgradation, tools and equipment modernization, initiation of trainer/faculty development programme along with upgradation of ITIs under hub & spoke model in collaboration with industry. It also involves dual training models with 50% training in schools and remaining 50% on-job and through industry exposure.
The life long skilling pillar focuses on sector-specific skilling for entrepreneurship in horticulture, handicrafts, eco-tourism, agro-processing, IT Services and others. It includes giving second chance on skilling with tailored advice and support, extending skill loan linked to employability. The export trade promotion envisages imparting training in packaging, branding, logistics for niche products such as saffron, dry fruits, fresh fruits, and our handicraft items.
For the effective monitoring of the whole plan a ‘Kaushal Samiksha Kendra’ modelled on Gujarat’s Vidhya Samiksha Kendra is going to be established too. Its operationalization was said to be based upon 6A methodology encompassing the online monitoring of attendance of students and trainers, assessment/certification after analysing skill proficiency, IT enabled administration and accreditation of ITIs upon set KPIs, and powering advancement in career by giving personalized counselling sessions. All the processes are purported to be assisted by AI to enhance the efficacy throughout.
Timelines for all these steps had been delineated to make the targets achievable in phased yet in a sure way after moving forward with objectives set under this mission.
Later, the Chief Secretary released a comprehensive report consolidating the key insights and recommendations from the two-day conference on ‘Transforming Skilling Ecosystem in Jammu & Kashmir’ held here on 16th and 17th of July for circulation among all the stakeholders.