Pramod Sawant takes aim at Goa’s skill gap, targets unemployment

PORVORIM: Aware that Goa’s youth struggle to find employment due to the widening skill gap between the industry and the talent pool available, chief minister Pramod Sawant outlined measures to help students become industry ready.
In his budget for 2023-24, Sawant increased the total allocation for skill development and entrepreneurship by 30% and provided Rs 148.2 crore to help make Goa’s youth employable.
“The vision of my government is skilling of human resources available in the state so that all youth find gainful employment opportunities,” said Sawant.
The chief minister outlined a slew of schemes that he hoped will help hone the skills of Goa’s under graduates, graduates and ITI students.
The Chief Minister Apprenticeship Policy aims to impart skills required by the public and private sectors to Goa’s youth through the Goa Education Development Corporation (GEDC), for which, a provision of Rs 5 crore has been made.
Similarly, the Chief Minister’s Kaushalya Scheme hopes to skill, re-skill and up-skill a “maximum number of local youth at a high speed” with quality standards for which Rs 1.7 crore has been made. Construction of the new block at ITI Panaji is expected to be completed by April at a cost of Rs 3.3 crore.
As part of the project to upgrade ITIs into Centre of Excellences through Tata Technologies, five government ITIs will be upgraded at a cost of Rs 209.7 crore. “The objective of this upgradation is to align the skills imparted with the industry job roles for gainful employment of all students,” said Sawant.
He also announced that tinkering labs will be setup in five government ITIs under the Centre’s STRIVE scheme. He also said that the National Education Policy focuses on holistic growth where skill improvement and competency development is part of the curriculum.