Skill development for rural youths

New Delhi: The government has approved a skill development programme to ensure that the country's huge army of rural youth is ‘capable’ of employment in different countries.

Rural Development minister Nitin Gadkari has approved the programme under the ambitious Deen Dayal Upadhaya Gramin Kaushal Yojna (DDUGKY) to make the rural youth employable through certification courses with benchmark of international standards, official sources said.

A Rural Youth Internship Programme which will give the participants an opportunity to earn while learning has been included in the approved programme, they said.

"A unique feature of this programme is that 75 per cent of youths trained under Deen Dayal Upadhaya Gramin Kaushal Yojna would be offered placement," a ministry official said.

The government has also simplified the process of getting into the programme. According to the officials, globally there is a shortfall of nearly 53 million skilled personnel like nurses, plumbers and electricians, and India has surplus of nearly 47 million persons with potential skill to match the global demand.

Primacy for skill training programme for the rural youth under DDUGKY will be given to private partners who can train and support overseas placement, captive placement as well as educational institutions of repute, they said.

Priority will be given to employers like Cafe Coffee Day who can guarantee training and placement of a minimum of 10,000 rural youths in two years, the officials said, adding rural youths of minimum 15 years of age will be eligible for the skill training programme.