Intentions may be good and humanistic; it is the delivery that matters. Three year- old Jammu and Kashmir State Overseas Employment Corporation Limited (JKSOECL) has failed to meet the very objectives for which it had been constituted. Either our youth aspiring for employment overseas are not having requisite skills that fit modern industrial employment or the overseas industries are so much ultra modernized that our aspiring youth are nowhere close to meeting their requirements. It was a good idea to identify two ITIs, one each in the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu, where aspiring students could take courses in upgrading their skills in a manner that their profile becomes worth consideration by the big overseas companies. But the problem is first that these ITIs do not have the faculties compatible with the latest skills and technology which they could impart to the trainees. And secondly the skills that are mostly in demand in overseas countries are limited though mostly in construction works.
The Board of Directors of the Corporation cannot arrive at any decision of how to tackle this issue. Maybe the practice observed in Nepal and Bangladesh could be of some help. Unless the level of skills is improved to meet international standards, it will be futile for aspiring youth to dream of a foreign assignment. A tie-up with the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment would be appreciated and helpful in suggesting possibilities of increasing the skills of those who are seeking jobs in foreign countries.
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