Mangaluru : A book for PU students ’60/60 Formula Capsule’ was released by Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy at a ceremony held at Vikas Pre-University College on April 9, Saturday.

Addressing students soon, candidates coming out of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the country could receive their educational certificates at convocations, said Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

The young technical aspirants in future would be treated differently by the Ministry so as to imbibe a sense of pride among them, he said.

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to have a skilled India, the Ministry is striving to make the youth to aspire for skills, he said.

Mr. Rudy said that the Ministry would also take steps to implement the Prime Minister’s vision to have multi-skill institutes in the country. Though 1,500 such institutes are being set up, the country would be left with an approximate 2,500 blocks that do not have ITIs.

Besides starting grant-based skilling systems for school/college dropouts, the Ministry has taken steps to bring all the 13,000 government and private ITIs in the country under its ambit to give necessary thrust to multi-skills, he said.

The Minister said that while having education up to 10th standard and PU is important, it would not make students employable. On the other hand, a 10-week skills development training for students up to 10th standard, and a 12-week training for PU students would make them employable in case they drop out of regular schools.

Mr. Rudy, referring to a survey by National Sample Survey Organisation, said that skilled workforce in India is as meagre as 4 per cent as against 96 per cent in South Korea. Countries, namely, the U.S., the U.K. and Japan have skilled workforce of 50 per cent, 68 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively. The National Democratic Alliance Government has set up a Ministry for skill development to create the right system to nurture skilling programmes, he said.

The Minister said that all skill-based programmes are brought under the National Skills Qualification Framework, a competency-based framework that organises all qualifications according to a series of levels of knowledge, skills and aptitude.