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To increase skilled workforce to 50%

Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram, July 22 The Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has laid special emphasis on skill development through imparting technical and vocational education to the workforce to ensure the growth of MSME sector in the country.

Dr Chandrapal, Secretary in the Ministry, said here while inaugurating a workshop on employment generation that available data suggested that the percentage of population undergoing vocational training in the country was much lower than in other developing countries.

In this context, the objective of the Ministry was to increase the skilled workforce from 5 per cent as of now to 50 per cent as desired by the Prime Minister, he said.

Dr Chandrapal pointed out that the proactive involvement of Indian industry was imperative in every aspect of skill development so that skill creation was made demand-driven and relevant to the emerging market opportunities. The Ministry is targeting that in each block one product should be identified and 50 to 100 boys and girls should be given training in it.

Towards this, the Ministry is planning to collaborate with industry associations across the country.

The associations will impress upon their member companies to impart practical training to a minimum of 20 per cent of the workforce employed in each unit.

The inclusive growth of the sector is also on top of the agenda of the Ministry.

For achieving this goal, there is need for creation of large employment opportunities and the National Minimum Programme has also recognised it.

With the land holding declining substantially from an average of 2.7 hectares in 1960 to about one hectare now, there is considerable surplus population engaged in the agricultural sector and they need to be provided gainful employment in the industrial and service sectors of the economy.

The MSME sector holds significant employment potential at low capital cost and the labour intensity in the sector is almost four times higher than in large enterprises.

Dr Chandrapal said that another important area the Ministry was working on was making available adequate and timely credit to MSMEs.

A policy package for stepping up credit to the enterprises had already been announced by the Government with the objective of doubling the credit flow to the sector within a period of five years, he said.

More Stories on : Human Resources | Kerala

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