Karnataka: Skill policy soon to help youth get jobs

Bengaluru: The state government will soon come out with the Karnataka State Skill Policy to promote employment among youth and equip them to join the labour force.

Announcing this during the launch of the week-long Koushalya Abhiyana and Koushalyakar.com here on Monday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the new skill policy will help employ over 1 lakh youth in the next one year. The CM had made an announcement on formulating the Skill Policy in the budget for 2016-17 which is  viewed as an attempt to reach out to unemployed youth ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections. Stating that the government was keen on empowering youth, the CM said he would constantly keep a watch on the implementation of the programme and make sure over 5 lakh youth are trained by 2018, besides employing 1 lakh youth.

The Knowledge Commission  had recommended the training of 1.88 crore youth by 2030 and the government will meet the expectation in phases, he explained.

The training module would be industry oriented and would aim at meeting industry requirements as Karnataka is at first place in terms of investment in the country and at the third slot in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

“Youth need not spend even a paisa to get trained. What they have to do is undergo training for a period between 3 and 6 months,” he said. The programme is not only intended for unemployed youth.

There are plans to train entrepreneurs, who want to know how to set up industry. The programme will be launched across the state by the respective district in-charge ministers and later implemented in the taluks.