Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, June 18: Encouraged over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special emphasis on skill development and employment, the Special Industry Initiative `Udaan’ is all set to fly high in the current year with more than three fold increase in its annual target of providing skills and job to Jammu Kashmir Youth.
During the current financial year, 12500 educated unemployed youth of Jammu Kashmir will be selected for training and placement by the corporate sector and the drive in this regard has been kick started, informed Dilip Chenoy, CEO and Managing Director of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
For affecting three time increase from the previous year’s target, the NSDC has roped in 20 more Corporate Houses whose total number has now reached to 60 while 25 more prominent business groups are on board to join this special initiative of the Prime Minister, he added.
Prominent Corporate Houses like Genpact, HCL Infosystems, Apollo Skills, Accenture and IL&FS Skills etc are currently conducting the drive for selection of candidates in J&K. Every week, two to three Corporate Houses are visiting J&K for the drive, Mr Chenoy said.
Pertinent to mention here that Udaan is a J&K specific initiative of Government of India to skill and employ 60 thousand youth of the State in key high growth private sectors over five years. National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is the implementing agency of Udaan, which targets Graduates, Post-Graduates and 3-year Diploma Engineers of J&K to provide them exposure to the best of corporate India.
Mr Chenoy further informed the Excelsior that to diminish the number of candidates, who either do not join the training programme or drop out during the training, the NSDC has made certain amendments in the selection procedures, such as preparing a waiting list of the candidates, base widening and increasing the conversion phase.
As exclusively reported by the Excelsior in January last, it was revealed that the Udaan was facing a peculiar hitch of drop out cases in training and placement of J&K youth for different reasons, including a general tendency of feeling home sick.
These drop-out candidates not only blocked the selection of other participants but also gave a wrong impression about the J&K youth among the Corporate Houses, which have entered into an MoU with the NSDC for imparting skills and consequent employment of J&K youth under Udaan.
The NSDC thoroughly discussed this issue during its review meeting and proposed certain amendments like issuance of waiting lists by the Corporate Houses, increasing conversion phases and base widening for accommodating more youth, Mr Chenoy told the Excelsior.
Last year, 4300 candidates were selected by different Corporate Houses but more than 700 did not turn up for the training and jobs notwithstanding handsome salary packages above Rs five lakh per annum. These candidates not only refused an attractive job but also deprived other unemployed educated youth from getting placed as the Corporate Houses did not conduct fresh drive for filling up the quota reserved for J&K youth under Udaan. As of date, more than 7,951 candidates have joined and completed training with over 36 corporates across the country.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel