Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy asked the National Academy of Construction to take up training of one lakh workers during 2013.

Presiding over the meeting of the governing board of NAC here today, he assured to provide funds from skill development board for conducting training programmes.

He stressed the need to build capabilities of construction industry through capacity building and also to take up skill up-gradation and certification of skills.

The Academy has conducted skill up-gradation training programmes in 2012-13 in association with leading trade bodies like Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), Borders Road Organisation (BRO), Military Engineering Services (MES), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and some of the building material manufacturers.

About 22,714 candidates have been trained up to January 2013.

The academy has also been conducting training programmes for in-service engineers of various Government departments.

During the year, the Academy proposes to upgrade the quality of the training programme for construction workers and groom them on new and advanced technological changes, new construction materials and building hardware.

Steps are also being taken to upgrade the syllabus, improving the teaching material and upgrading tools and improving the quality of trainers.

The academy proposes to introduce new courses to enable transition of skilled labourers to supervisory levels and also to jobs "involving higher skills".

It is working on new training courses in consultation with user organisations to provide induction and in service training to their training staff.

>rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in

comment COMMENT NOW