Assam Government To Enhance Youths’ Skills To Increase Employability

GUWAHATI: The Assam government is focusing on enhancing the skill-sets of the youth population of the state by leaps and bounds in the coming days. In this regard, the government is taking up several initiatives, including promoting skills through corporate partnerships.

The government is mulling more ITIs to provide skill training to more youths in the future. At present, there are 132 ITIs with a seat capacity of 24,000. The government is planning to increase the number of ITIs to 250 with a seat capacity of 50,000.

The number of educated job seekers is considerably high in Assam, which is a great challenge given the growing economy of the state. Due to increased demand for skilled workers, the government is planning to turn educated unemployed youth into skilled job seekers.

There is a booming construction sector in the state where mostly unskilled workers are employed. The skilled workers necessary in this sector are sourced from outside the state. Also, there is huge scope in electronic repair jobs, but our youth are lacking the necessary skills.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Our government has focused in many ways on developing the skills of the youth and women of Assam. State-of-the-art ITIs and skill training institutions are already up and running, and we aim to further intensify these efforts to bolster skill and employability for the youth of Assam.”

Official sources said that the government is planning to promote skills through Skill Yatra and corporate partnerships with itel, IBM, Pepsico, SAS, Schneider, etc. By providing skill training through partnerships with these companies, it will be evident to new companies coming to the state that the youth are properly skilled.

In Assam, until July, the number of job seekers was 28.83 lakh. The government has asked these job seekers to re-register with employment exchanges through e-portals. Those opting to re-register have to mention whether they are engaged in any private companies or if they have availed of any government grant for self-employment, etc.

According to a government report for 2022–23, the labour force’s participation rate in respect of the age group of 15 years and above in Assam is 55.5% in rural areas and 52.40% in urban areas.

Until December 2022, employment in the central government, state government, and central-quasi government in Assam was around 4.87 lakhs, while that in the private sector was 6.35 lakhs.

From the above figures, it is clear that the private sector is playing an important role in employment, and the government wants this sector to play an even more important role in providing employment. For this, skilling is absolutely necessary, and the government has focused its efforts on that.

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