Guj ties up with corporates, institutes for skilled workforce

"For creation of industry responsive workforce in Gujarat, we have tied-up with 15 groups including Tata, Toyota and Apollo, besides some regional and central institutions," Director Centre of Entrepreneurship Development Chandan Chatterjee told PTI.

"Tata Motors has agreed to mentor ITI Sarkhej for creation of skilled manpower for automotive sector, while the state's contribution will be towards equipment upgradation," he said, adding that the target was to reach 50 such tie-ups with industrial groups on public-private partnership basis.

To begin with, the state has identified seven priority sectors such as Chemical, Plastic and Packaging, Garment, Auto and Engineering, Gems and Jewellery, besides Textiles and Infrastructure.

It aims to train personnel through the network of polytechniques and Industrial Training Institute's (ITI) across the state. To ensure quality training to them in accordance with industries requirement, it has coined the concept of Anchor Institutes.

"The seven institutions including NIFT, Gandhinagar and few regional institutes designated as Anchor shall recommend curriculum in line to industry demand, besides imparting training to faculty for each one of the identified sectors," Chatterjee said.
"NIFT will be responsible for generation of skilled workforce in Garment Engineering, CEPT University for Infrastructure, Central Institute of Plastic Engineering Technology (CIPET) for plastic and packaging," he said.

SVNIT Surat will be training workforce for Auto and Engineering sector, Indian Diamond Institute for Gems and Jewellery, while Dharamsinh Desai University Nadiad and LD Engineering for Chemical, he added.

"These measures, undertaken by the department, will help create a dedicated, specialised skilled manpower in line to industry requirement," said state Industry Commissioner B B Swain.

Gujarat has sanctioned Rs 60 crore to partly fund projects on upgradation of training centres for the development of skilled workforce in state or towards establishment of new ones, Chatterjee said.

The state industry department in FY 2009-2010 created a skilled workforce of around 15,000 persons through various initiatives.