"NEW DELHI: Industry body CII [Confederation of Indian Industry] plans to set up eight new skill development centres across the country with the support of both its member companies and the state and central government in the next one year, said CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee. These centres will impart training to people in industrial jobs, software skills, agricultural and rural technology and even soft skills.

CII already has two operational centres — one in Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh) and the other in Parwanoo (Himachal Pradesh). The Chhindwara centre was set up a year ago and has trained around 600 people till date. The Parwanoo centre is being managed by Indian Institute of Skill Development, focusing in industrial skills.

The next two centres will come up in Balasore (Orissa) and Gurgaon (Haryana). For the Gurgaon centre, CII is also in talks with ITE Singapore — an institute that provides pre-employment training to secondary school drop-outs and working adults. Other centres are expected to come up in Murshidabad (West Bengal) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu). CII plans to train 500-1,000 people every quarter.

Nearly 20 million Indians enter the job market every year and at the current economic growth, 94 million people will seek jobs in the next five years. But only 77 million new jobs will be created, widening the demand-supply gap."

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