Bhubaneswar: The guiding principle of skill development in the state should be to create 'Skilled in Odisha' brand, a separate identity for the youth trained in Odisha across the globe, said Subroto Bagchi, chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA) on Friday.
Co-founder of leading IT services company Mindtree, Bagchi was speaking at the first governing council meeting of OSDA after taking charge as its chairman on May 1 this year.
Present at the meeting, Skill Development and Technical Education minister and OSDA vice chairman Sanjay Dasburma emphasized the need to strengthen District Employment Exchanges as the District Employment Officer is the nodal officer for implementation of skill training programme at the district level.
He also emphasized on the need for early roll out of ADB project which will help substantially in scaling of the programme. He also outlined the need for tapping the Central funding for undertaking skill training programme in the state.
Delegation of financial authority, drawing and dispersing authority of OSDA, constitution of a four-member executive committee for approval of skill development proposals were discussed at the meeting. Besides, road map for skill development and action plan to impart skill to eight lakh youths under the Chief Minister's Employment Generation Programme (CMEGP) in next three years was also discussed.
Secretary, Skill Development and Technical Education, Sanjay Kumar Singh, requested all the departments to submit annual action plan for skill training for 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretaries of 20 line departments were also present in the meeting.
The state government has accorded highest priority to skill development for the employability of unemployed youth. In an effort to bring convergence amongst the skill development programmes implemented by various departments and to scale up skilling activities both in quantitative and qualitative terms, it has created a unified authority in the name of OSDA which has been formed as an autonomous society registered under Society Registration Act 1860.
Following registration of OSDA, its first governing council meeting was convened under the chairmanship of Bagchi.