Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Jan 1: As the Government of India’s ‘Udaan’ initiative for J&K youth is facing a peculiar hitch of drop out cases by the selected candidates for training and placement, the implementing agency National Skill Development Council (NSDC) is mulling to strict participation of successful applicants in more than one selection drive under the Programme.
To diminish the number of candidates who either do not join the training programme or drop out during the training, the NSDC is considering to restrict participation of the candidates who have been selected by one corporate, informed Dilip Chenoy, CEO and Managing Director of NSDC during an interaction with the Excelsior.
The drop-out candidates not only block the selection of other participants but also give a wrong impression 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, he explained.
“The NSDC discussed this issue during its recent review meeting at New Delhi and actively considered the proposal for making participation in Udaan on lines of campus placement under which a candidates having already got selected by one company, is not allowed to participate in the drive by other companies,” Mr Chenoy said.
Pertinent to mention that Udaan is a J&K specific initiative of Government of India to skill and employ 59 thousand youth of the State in key high growth private sectors over five years. 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.
However, this unique initiative is facing a challenge as some selected youth are either not joining the job training or quitting the training midway for different reasons.
A general tendency of feeling home sick among the J&K youth who are least interested to go outside the State for placement, is believed to be the major reason behind the situation.
There are instances when the selected candidates did not join the training programme despite hundred percent guarantee of handsome job with attractive salary packages.
In the case of Canara Bank, which distributed Training-cum-Placement letters among the selected youth through Chief Minister Omar Abdullah during a function here yesterday, 50 out of 300 selected candidates are learnt to have refused to join the training for the reasons best known to them notwithstanding Rs 5.79 lakh salary package per annum after only three month training.
These 50 candidates not only refused an attractive job but also deprived 50 other unemployed youth from getting placed, said Mr Chenoy.
Similarly 48 out of 314 selected candidates by IISD, did not join the training while in the case of Iyogi, 44 out of 147 selected candidates, dropped-out. Among the total 2685 candidates, selected by 31 private corporates and PSUs, 215 dropped out while 70 opted out of placement despite completing the training. Total 778 selected candidates have so far completed training and 1692 are still under training.
According to Mr Chenoy, selection of bright candidates by more than one corporate is also a major reason behind increasing number of drop-outs as they keep shifting to more attractive offers. However, this practices ultimately results into loss of jobs created for J&K youth under Udaan as the Corporate Houses do not conduct fresh drive for filling up the quota reserved for J&K youth, he explained.
Even Chief Minister Omar Abdullah yesterday expressed his concern over the instances of drop-out under Udaan and asked such candidates not to participate in the process so that prospects of other unemployed youth may not harm.
To check this practice, the proposal to restrict participation of short listed candidates in selection by other Corporates under Udaan is under active consideration of the NSDC and the same is likely to be implemented before a major drive by more than 40 Corporate Houses in J&K very soon, Mr Chenoy said adding in a lighter vein that there was no pill for home sick feeling.
He further informed that the NSDC was also going to provide monetary rewards for successful completion of approved training programme to encourage skill development for youth.
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