Walse-Patil favours private sector participatiopn in ITIs

Mumbai, Oct 23 (UNI) Favouring public-private partnership in churning out skilled workforce in the state, Maharashtra Energy Minister Dilip Walse-Patil today said his government was open for partnership with the industry to upgrade the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs).

''I would urge the industry to sponsor various projects and courses and give more financial and academic autonomy to the ITIs'' Mr Patil said in his address at an interactive meeting on ''Role of Business in Modernising Education in the Globalised World'', organised by the Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC) here today.

Mr Patil pointed out that Maharashtra had 394 government-run and 207 privately run ITIs and called for forging partnerships with the private sector.

The Minister also presented the Union Government's plans for the ITIs and vocational training institutes. It included among others interest-free loans upto Rs 2.5 crore as seed money, MOUs between stakeholders, the state and Central governments, improving education for employability and industry partner for each ITI.

During the conference, Nayan Patel, chairman of IMC's expert committee on 'Education and Vocational Training' presented the findings of the committee.

The findings revealed a huge gap between the need of the industry for skilled workforce and the inability of many vocational institutes.

He further said the industries required 15,000 skilled workers, but the attrition rate of 35 per cent had resulted in acute shortfall and drop in productivity.

UNI