Make optimum use of existing facilities: Fernandes

Bangalore, Sep 9 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Labour Oscar Fernandes today called for better utilisation of the existing training facilities to cope with the shortage of skilled manpower dogging the Indian industry.

Speaking at an interaction meet of 'Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises' organised by the MSME Development Institute here, he said the industrial training facilities in engineering colleges and polytechnics in the country remained under-utilised and there was an urgent need for maximum utilisation of the existing infrastructure.

''The workshops in engineering colleges and polytechnics are used only for four hours a day. The government training centres are under utilised. Only Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) are more active in training the youth. We are wasting a huge investment in infrastructure development,''he said.

Mr Fernandes said it was sad that only seven per cent of the youth in the country attended colleges. It was time to cash in on the youth power that could not make it to the college. They could be trained to form a formidable skilled labour force, he added.

In accordance with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's aspiration of enhancing the skilled workforce from the present five per cent to 50 per cent, the Labour Ministry was ready to invest in the upgradation of ITIs across the country.

''We are ready to provide support to all those, who want to work towards achieving the mission. We have to use our youth to strengthen our economy,'' he said.

Calling upon the 'micro, small and medium enterprises' to be globally competitive, he said technical upgradation was the need of the hour. ''I cannot say that we should stop the global invasion, but indigenous industry should upgrade itself to compete with it.

He called upon the SMEs to utilise the youth belonging to weaker sections of the society. ''We cannot let the youth take to unwanted ways like naxalism. This is happening in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

It is high time we bring them to the mainstream of the society and utilise their power in the right way,'' he maintened.

UNI