Skilling to become more important in post-Covid world, says MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Skilling will become more important in the post-COVID world because the pandemic has disrupted livelihoods and business models and people would want to re-skill and up-skill themselves to get into new fields, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday.

Chandrasekhar, who is also the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, was in Dubai to attend the Indian Global Forum, which concluded on Tuesday. In an interview to PTI, Chandrasekhar said the ability of more and more youths to get skilled will improve dramatically. The pandemic has disrupted livelihoods and business models and as such, people would want to re-skill and up-skill themselves and get into areas, which will grow and thrive in the post-Covid world, he said.

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Skilling is a network that is extraordinarily built across India. We have 14,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), almost 10,000 to 12,000 training centres and 700 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs). So the distribution network is there, the minister said. Between 2015 and 2020, India has skilled over 3.4 crore people of which almost 1.4 crore were completely free skilling provided by the government using the same network, he said, adding that over 4,000 programmes are being offered to the youths.

One of the things you will see India doing very significantly in the coming months and years is to take skilling on a digital platform and in multiple languages, extending its reach into areas where we did not have a physical centre, Chandrasekhar said.