Minister for Higher Education and Skill Development C.N. Ashwath Narayan on Wednesday said that his department will launch a redesigned Skill Connect Portal that has been made more effective on the occasion of World Youth Skill Development Day on July 15.
He was speaking after inaugurating a mega job fair organised by the department at Bhandarkar’s Arts and Science College in Kundapur, Udupi district.
The portal, Mr. Narayan said, will help bring employers and job-seekers on the same platform.
It will enable job-seekers to learn about opportunities, evaluate them, learn about their lacunae and also improve their skills. Thus, the portal will help employers to overcome shortage of manpower, the Minister said. The portal that has already been functioning has now been fine-tuned and improved.
Mr. Narayan said that the government has joined hands with enterprises to offer skill-based training to students. This is to avoid the gap between the demand and supply as students coming out of educational institutions should be industry-ready. The system is being suitably redesigned to help job-seekers to get employment of their choice.
The Minister said that learning in disciplines of technology, including data analytics, artificial intelligence, cyber security, has been made mandatory under the National Education Policy. Karnataka is the first State to partner with Nascom in this connection. Similarly, the government has also partnered with Infosys Spring Board where over 5,000 add-on courses are available. The government has provided over 27,000 computer systems to government colleges through various IT companies, he mentioned.
Mr. Narayan noted that the State has 1,200 ITI institutes where 1.5 lakh students can pursue long-term courses and one lakh students, short-term courses. Intake capacity in polytechnics in the State has been enhanced to 75,000 from 30,000. All the 31 districts in the State have GTTCs. There is no dearth for seats for any course in the State except medical education, the Minister noted.
Minister for Social and Backward Classes Welfare Kota Srinivas Poojari said that more than 2,800 online applications have been received for the job fair and it is possible to offer jobs for nearly 2,000 candidates by 57 participating companies. He asked the companies to issue offer letters to candidates at the earliest.
Kundapur TMC president Veena Bhaskar Mendon presided over the event.
