HAILAKANDI, Dec 10 - Around 200 unemployed youth and students participated in a workshop on Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (Sankalp) organised at Rabindra Bhawan here on Wednesday by the Assam Skill Development Mission.
Inaugurating the workshop, District Development Commissioner Ranajeet Kumar Laskar urged the youths to take up the vocation in which they have inherent skills. Youths, after completion of their education, must not hanker after white collar jobs but look out for greener pastures by honing their skills.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Narendra Kumar Shah said the district has huge potential in bamboo, carpet-making, pottery and indigenous toys and these offer ample opportunities to youths to undergo training.
Md Pinku Choudhury, assistant state project manager, Social Mobilisation and Capacity Building, while giving a presentation on the Sankalp scheme and skill ecosystem, said that 15 workshops were being planned across the State, and the first was held in Hailakandi. Sankalp is a World Bank-assisted programme run by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Choudhury said the ASDM has provided one lakh short-term skilling opportunities to youths to enhance their entrepreneurship spirit, and recognition of prior training certificates to over two lakh youths to create a pool of skilled human resources.
He said there are 900-plus skill training centres, of which 10 are in Hailakandi district. Choudhury urged the district programme managers of the Barak valley to conduct a study of the skills gap and apprise the District Skill Committee to work on focus areas to identify job roles for skilling the youths.
District Agriculture Officer in-charge Dr AR Ahmed, DPM Hailakandi Pinak Choudhury, Skill Nodal Officer Sari Langtau and DPM Cachar Niloy Sinha were also present.