The skill development mission is currently gaining huge momentum across the whole of India. The Government of India has amended the obsolete Apprenticeship Act of 1961 and brought forth new changes and reforms that have consolidated the foundation of skill development in the country. The National Skill Development Council, as well as the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, have undertaken the actions to bring about revolutionary changes in the apprenticeship ecology of the country as well as providing a conducive climate of growth for various industries amidst the proliferation in the number of skilled workforces.
The vision of the “Skilled in Odisha’ brand :
A state of the art facility has been constructed in Bhubaneswar and it is the first of its kind in the whole country. This facility, known as the World Skill Centre, will be providing advanced skill training in leading industrial sectors including the service sector and the manufacturing sector to aspiring youths. There is a training center for imparting the relevant knowledge and tutelage to the trainers themselves and ITE Singapore is the knowledge partner who will contribute their resources to the WSC. This institute houses a comprehensive, experience-based learning environment that integrates an interactive interface with the global industrial goliaths. The Odisha State Skill Development Association (OSDA) has been implementing innovation coupled with their great vision and launched the WSM in 2019.
Objectives of the Odisha model of skill development :
- The main objective of the Odisha skill development corporation was to boost the number of trained and competent youth equipped with industry-specific skills that would invariably increase productivity in all industrial sectors. The target of the OSDC was to train 1.1 million youth by 2019 through WSM and by 2015 8.5 lakh youths had been skilled but were not deemed enough in the hyper-competitive professional environment. The aspirational brand called ” Skilled in Odisha” is an objective of the OSDC that will have international acclaim for producing the world’s finest plumbers, electricians, carpenters, welders, sewing machine operators, mobile phone operators, nursing assistants, solar panel operators, mechanics, clean energy practitioners and the like.
- To implement this objective the OSDA resorted to three-point modus operandi. The first was to invite employers of global scale to lock in talent in Odisha. Similar to Engineering companies which lock in all the engineering talent with job offers before they graduate, the OSDA targeted corporate employers of the national level to lock in the ITI-talent in Odisha with desirable job offers before they graduate from their respective courses.
- The second goal was to extend this lock-in area to a global level initiating from the state and lock in all the talent so that organizations and establishments would come to Odisha from all over the world in search of the most competent talent. It would be the global destination for talent.
- The third goal of the OSDC was to develop Odisha into an innovation sandbox so that all the experimentally and industrially conceived ideas would be tried out in Odisha. As a result, Odisha would be able to provide at least two or three innovative ideas involving any trade.
Trades in which Odisha will provide skill development training to youths :
The WSM developed under the auspices of the OSDC has the capacity to train 4000 youths together and each of its 18 stories is dedicated to providing skill-based training in various disciplines. Each of these storeys will be known as the Centres of Excellence in their respective fields and will have direct affiliation to the global leaders in those disciplines. OSDA has identified courses in the areas of mechatronics, facilities technology, beauty and wellness, hair fashion, precision engineering, design, logistics operation and the like.
In the first phase, the OSDA has laid down the guidelines for the absorption of candidates into the WSM. The aspiring candidates who aim to make a mark in their respective fields or disciplines and make themselves supremely employable in industries would have to be ITI graduates and even graduates from Polytechnics and Engineering. All these technical graduates who are well versed in requisite theoretical knowledge and the WSM would provide practical training in simulated workplaces.
Thus Odisha is implementing big skill development initiatives to narrow the skill gap in the country as well as the state.
