By Colonel DP Dimri (Retd), PhD
The Need
Aspiring youth and women of Uttarakhand need decent jobs for sustainable livelihood through readily employable dynamic skills for now and the future. It is a ground fact that plans and programmes designed in the past have not yielded intended ground results of providing much needed “Jobs/Employment (Rozgar) or Entrepreneurship (Swarozgar) opportunities” to deprived Uttarakhandis.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has also contended that “India suffers not from Unemployment but Unemployability“.
We need highly multi-skilled manpower, globally readily employable. And, this dictates the need to revisit and reshape our action plans for making Uttarakhand a “Hub for Employable Skills”. Fortunately, the State enshrines the most required expertise and capabilities, with committed pruning and focused action.
The new approach will require working at the grassroots level with linkage to global and national fast changing technology and skills in demand with implicit time bound dedicated and monitored ground implementation
The Suggested Road- Map
Consequent to my long working experience with Gol, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Textiles, and International Labour Organisation (ILO) since 2006 on the subject of “Skills Development, Employment and Entrepreneurship – SDE&E in terms of ‘Policy and Methodologies for ground implementation’, and visits to various ITIs/ Polytechnics in Uttarakhand; the suggested ‘Road–map’ for gainfully “Skilling Uttarakhand” is enumerated below:
- Identification of ‘Hot/ In-demand Jobs and Skills’, based on specific ‘Sectors Skills Councils – SSCs’, with relevance for employment at the State, National and Global levels. A few of the SSCs in high demand, at present, are:
- a) Construction & Manufacturing Sectors: Highly expert Masons, Carpenters, Plumbers, Bar-benders, Electricians; etc.
(b) IT and ICT Sector: Hardware and Software technicians /Operators, Data entry and security Operators, Data analysts, ERP operators, Telecom technicians and operators (General and Specialised) for Manufacturing and Service sectors, Cloud computing, AI, etc.
(c) Security and Legal Sectors: Guards and Escorts to meet increasing demands for legal assistants by Corporates and factories; etc.
(d) Mass Communications: News reporters, print data operators, printing machine mechanics; etc.
(e) Agro- Farming Sectors: With population and lands availability growing inversely, there is need for high yield seeds and crops.
And, several other sector skills as per changing technologies, times and demands.
- Raising an ‘Uttarakhand Skill University – USU‘ – for Research, Quality Skilling and world-wide employment.
Unlike numerous academic universities, USU woud exclusively be focused on…
(a) Research on current and future local, national and global market demands & trending products and services; traditional skills like plumbing, welding to digital expertise: coding, drones, missiles to AI and newest innovations and technologies.
(b) Having secured credible multi-skill degrees / certificates like CVoC , DVoC, MvoC and PhD from the recognised government Skill University, USU, the same will be acceptable internationally for befitting placements and employment.
(c) Optimum utilisation of vast resources available on ground in terms of ITIs & Polytechnics, and upgrading a few, say 30 or so, one or more per district as “Centres of Excellence” for specialised skills/courses.
(d) Better command and control of assistance from Central government and Corporates like TCS, Mahindra, Siemens and others.
(e) Judicious coordination and effective utilisation of State Skill Mission schemes and offers secured from Union Government like PMKVY, DDGKY, NSDC, etc., by avoiding confusion and clash of interests.
(f) Concerted efforts by the university to motivate and facilitate aspiring youth to take on ‘Skill and Entrepreneurship‘ with all seriousness at village, school, college and university levels through massive campaigns as successfully attempted in Odisha by Ministry of Textiles.
Finally: The state government and all concerned need to accept the dire necessity of an exclusive University for skilling our aspiring youth and women. The old mindset has to change as the role of the ‘Skill University’ would be entirely different from scores of other academic Universities. It directly addresses “Hunar/Skill in Hand and Employment/Rozgaar”, impacting the livelihood of the numerous needy people.
Realising the worth and significance of ‘Skilling‘, the Prime Minister inaugurated the ‘Bharat Ratna Karpoori Thakur Skill University’ in Bihar in 2025 at the state’s earnest request.
Uttarakhand has to become ‘ Kaushal – Pradhan Pradesh‘ on the lines of Dr Parmar’s Himachal as ‘Krishi–Pradhan Pradesh‘, paying rich dividends through generations and being remembered for ever.
It is high time the Uttarakhand government gives highest priority to arming our youth and other aspirants with ‘Quality Readily Employable Skills‘ by establishing the “Uttarakhand Skill University“ as already done by several visionary states.
Any further delay will be detrimental to ‘Rozi-Roti’ of our aspiring youth, prosperity of the state and government’s interest. It is the ‘Need of the Hour’- Now or Never.
(The Author is a Social Entrepreneur, Advisor on Skills Development & Entrepreneurship.)
