Unskilled workforce should be turned skilled, says President

Malda (WB), Aug 1: President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday advocated for training the huge number unskilled or semi-skilled labourers to skilled ones.

Of the 125 crore people of the country, 58 per cent were job seekers and they should be turned into skilled workers, Mukherjee emphasised.

He was addressing a gathering while inaugurating the academic campus of Ghani Khan Choudhury Institute of Engineering& Technology, near here in Malda district.

The President said only one third of the present work force in the country were skilled while others were unskilled or semi-skilled.

Stating that those unskilled or semi-skilled workers should be given training to turn them into skilled ones, he said the opportunity for doing so was maximum in the manufacturing sector.

"Within a few years we have to develop skill in 50 crore people," Mukherjee said.

The Ghani Khan Choudhury Institute of Engineering & Technology was established in 2010 by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development in the memory of former union minister ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, who contributed a lot in developing Malda.

The President, who planted a sapling in the compound, said Ghani Khan Choudhury had nurtured a dream to set up an institute like this where there would be innovation in both teaching and learning.

PTI