CII Skills Summit inaugurated; Skill Development is a national priority, says Oscar Fernandes

The summit was inaugurated on September 17 by Mr Oscar Fernandes, Minister of State (Labour & Employment) Independent Charge Government of India. Addressing the summit, Mr Fernandes said, Skill development is a matter of high priority for India as a nation. India can become a supplier of skilled professionals at a global level. Government of India is focussing a lot to support the sector.

Highlighting various initiatives by the Government, Mr Fernandes said, In 2007-08, we have taken a lot of steps. We have increased our outlays on skills development programmes by 11 times this year. Prime Minister has constituted the National Skills Development Council which is actively looking into the progress on this front.

Earlier, delivering the welcome address, Mr. B Santhanam, Chairman, CII Skills, HR & IR/ER Committee & MD Saint-Gobain Glass India Limited, said, In last few years India have made good progress in generating consensus on the need for focus on skills development. There is a lot of commitment and collaboration from all the stakeholders now. However, now is the time for execution. We need to focus on rolling out programmes for skill development and making them successful. Execution is a priority now.

Ms. Sudha Pillai, Secretary (Labour & Employment) Government of India, said, In last 60 years Government has done a lot in the area of skill development, particularly with establishment of close to 2000 ITIs. But a lot of gaps remain at a qualitative and qualitative level. We need a lot better quality and quantity of skills development infrastructure in India. As we have shown in last one year, Government of India is committed to this area.

Mr. Jim Davidson, Deputy Secretary, Dept. of Education, Employment & Work Relations, Australia and Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General Confederation of Indian Industry also shared their views on the subject.

The two-day summit will see host of national & global speakers from Government, Industry, Academia, Multi-lateral Agencies, etc. The Summit shall be attended by Senior Industry representatives & experts from Australia, Germany, US, China, Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Britain. Together they will offer perspectives on bridging the skill divide & sharing international best practices. Australia is the partner country for the Summit.

On the occasion, CII also released a Blue Book on ITIs, 5 Sector Reports.

EmployablityUniverse.com, Indias first portal on employability development for Indias rapidly growing knowledge economy, is the official media partner of the summit. EmployabilityUniverse.com is published by media company Triumph Mediatech, which also publishes Indias leading management portal MBAUniverse.com and print magazine M NOW.