Swiss initiative to train one million youths in India

Updated on: Tuesday, November 08, 2011

After successful completion of a Swiss industry driven pilot project to impart vocational eduction, a new initiative to train one million youths in India by 2022 was unveiled here.

"Under the new initiative, a separate company is being set up to move the project seamlessly from the pilot to a self-sustainable model," project director of the Swiss vocational education and training initiative in India G P Chandra Kumar told reporters here.

The new company 'SkillSonics' has entered into an agreement with Swiss mechanical and electrical engineering industries (SWISSMEN) and Swiss federal institute for vocational education and training (SFIVET) to take forward the training exercise.

"Industry participation is critical as companies stand to be the main beneficiaries of the programme by having their factories manned by people trained and certified to Swiss standards," said Kumar, who was flanked by Swiss Ambassador to India Philippe Welti.

He said that the million-strong trained professionals will also include three lakh skilled workforce for the engineering sector.

The pilot project was launched in 2008 under collaboration between Swiss federal office for professional education and technology (OPET) and Swiss-India chamber of commerce (SICC) in partnership with SWISSMEN and SFIVET in Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Kumar said MoUs were signed with industry bodies and several ITIs from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat as well as nine companies were inducted into the pilot project.

The model envisaged a three-way partnership, with the first batch of apprentices trained in Pune and Bangalore successfully passing out multi-skilled production technical course in October this year.

Kumar said one of the hallmarks of their programme is the award of dual certificates which will enable the candidates to be accepted here as well as in foreign countries.

He said that SkillSonics will take the vocational programme across the country and plans to offer courses for sectors such as food processing, ICT, hospitality, construction sector etc.

Swiss initiative to train one million youths in India

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