New Delhi: India will soon have a policy to direct the government’s mission to conduct short vocational courses that would enable students to get jobs. 
Bridging gaps: Union minister for labour and employment Oscar Fernandes. Photograph: Raveendran / AFP
The final draft of the country’s national skill development policy will be placed before the Union cabinet for approval shortly, minister for labour and employment Oscar Fernandes said on Thursday.
The policy aims to bridge the growing mismatch between the skills of a young population and the nature of jobs they would be required to fill, through short-term vocational courses at existing technical institutions run by the government, he told an industry conference in the Capital.
The government seeks to create 70 million jobs by 2012, and has undertaken a national skills development mission.
Through this mission, it will spend Rs31,000 crore in five years to develop employable skills in high-growth sectors that include automobiles and auto components, transportation, logistics, warehousing and packaging, travel and tourism, media and entertainment and health care services.
It will do so by running new courses at more than 8,000 technical training institutes across the country, in active participation with the private sector, the minister said.
The newly constituted National Skill Development Council, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will meet early next month to discuss skill development initiatives in different arms of the Union government and suggest ways to share experience and learning across ministries and departments, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, said at the conference.
Fernandes said that besides upgrading existing industrial training institutes and polytechnics, the government has also launched a skill development initiative scheme to train one million people in the next five years and one million every year, thereafter.
The scheme would ensure training is provided in demand-driven, short-term courses, which are based on employable skills, he said.
The government is also working on an employment policy for the country that would examine all the initiatives of the government and multilateral institutes and evaluate their impact on jobs, the minister said.
