Indians could make use of dearth of manpower in Europe: Fernandes

Chennai, Mar 16 (UNI) Union Minister of state for Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes said as there would be shortage of manpower in Europe and other countries in the next 15 years and Indians with proper training could make use of the opportunity.

Speaking at the two-day valedictory function of the Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA) here last night, he said out of the 463 million labour force in India, only about 10 per cent had some kind of pre-requisite skill while in developed countries it was as high as 90 per cent.

Stressing the importance of opening more institutions and schools to provide education to more children, he said at present only seven per cent of the population were going to colleges and universities, while 67 per cent were not reaching matriculation stage.

Mr Fernandes said ''for unorganised workers, the government had provided social security schemes such as life and health insurance covers. Providing social security would improve their productivity.

As there was a dearth of skilled workers, the government had launched a skill mission, where 50,000 vocational technical schools would be opened to impart technical skills to workers in various trades.'' All these measures would increase not only the income of workers but the GDP of the country as well, he opined.

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