25 leading cos show interest to make ITIs world-class centres

Time of India

20 hours ago

Mumbai: About 25 leading industry stakeholders, including the likes of Jindal Steel, Chitale Bandhu, Toyota India, Mahindra & Mahindra, and the Baramati Industrial Development Association, have expressed interest in collaborating with the government to convert Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the state to world-class centres.
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The govt had reached out to several companies, professionals and entrepreneurs for the scheme to develop ITIs through public-private partnerships (PPP) in May this year. Some of these companies are keen to adopt more than one ITIs.
A GR was released in May by the state drawing the policy, mentioning that the ownership of campuses will remain with the govt, while industry partners can introduce courses, train teachers, and modernise facilities.
The state has over 425 ITIs. The state wants all these to be gradually adopted by the industries, but in the first year, the plan is to have at least 25 running in the PPP model. On Wednesday, during a media interaction, state's skill, employment, entrepreneurship and innovation minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, said 'about 25 leading industries have shown interest and the MoUs are likely to be signed soon'.
In yet another move, to increase the employability of ITI students and to cultivate managerial skills in them, the govt will be offering short-term courses in management education in ITIs from this Sep.
Lodha said, "Our students have great technical know-how, but they lack management knowledge and therefore are unable to bag top positions in the industries. To bridge this gap, we have decided to offer them short-term courses in management, soft-skills and AI.
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While these optional courses will be offered free of cost to students from the ITIs, outsiders can also enroll for them at a nominal fee of Rs 5,000. The upper age limit for these courses has been fixed at 40 years. Under management, courses in business analytics, marketing, production management, financial and behavioural management will be offered as three- to four-month courses. Courses in soft skills, service industry and new-age courses such as AI-machine learning developer, solar panel installation, drone technology and operations, EV mechanic, "will also be offered in ITIs based on the demand placed by institutes and their local requirement," said Lodha.
For instance, a course in fish processing in the coastal region or agro-processing in the agricultural belt will be offered too. The course content will be developed by the state's skill university.