Govt introducing new courses and revamping outdated at ITIs

The Labour Ministry has started revamping some of its outdated courses and planning to launch some new courses at Industrial Training Institutes, which are more relevant in present industry scenario.

A senior Ministry Official said, “Some courses, such as secretarial practice, are no longer relevant. So, we have removed these and are introducing new ones.”

He said the major concern of these ITIs is not just skill development of the students, but employability, too, that’s why they are revising some of its old and outdated courses to fit into industry requirements. The ministry has involved the industry and experts in re-designing the courses.

For instance, nutritionist Shikha Sharma is leading the group of nutrition and health. Designer Anju Modi is involved in the fashion design course, hair stylist Jawed Habib and Vandana Luthra’s VLCC in the hair-styling and beautician courses and Taj Spa, Ananda Spa and Kairali in the course for spa training.

The Labour Ministry also planning to invite bids soon to set up 1,500 ITIs this fiscal through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Apart from the North-East, the Ministry had identified places in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for these ITIs.

The proposed pattern will follow the PPP school model which is proposed by the Human Resource Development Ministry, State governments identify and facilitate land on lease at very low rates, and the private participation take up the charges to construct and manage the institutes with grants issued by the Centre. In case the private partners acquire and owns the land, no capital aid is given.

Bids will also be invited for 52 Advanced Training Institutes (ATIs) that will train instructors for proposed ITIs. The official also informed, “Of these, 20 ATIs are planned exclusively for women.”

Of the new ITIs proposed to start 476 are in Uttar Pradesh, 160 in West Bengal, 131 in Odisha, 110 in Madhya Pradesh and 105 in Bihar. Presently, there are more than 7,500 it is run by the private sector and 2,200 run by the Government.

With ITIs now being established in PPP mode, it remains to be seen whether the government will be able to maintain a balance between the growing job needs of weaker sections and the industry’s requirement of an ‘employable’ workforce.