By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 13 Sep: The UPES faculty have brought laurels to the University once again with the award of the ‘Certified Trainers’ title by the Power Sector Skill Council (PSSC) for the Power Distribution areas. This was the outcome of the first ‘Training of Trainers (ToT)’ organised by PSSC for Power Distribution Engineers in Uttarakhand under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)’ – the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. Nine faculty members of the Department of ‘Electrical & Electronics Engineering’ of the ‘School of Engineering (SOE), UPES, successfully qualified as PSSC ‘Certified Trainers’. The Power Sector Skill Council was promoted by the Ministry of Power (MoP) through Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA) and with the necessary support from the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). Till date, the NSDC Board has approved 38 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) out of which 37 are already operational with over 600 Corporate Representatives in the Governing Councils of these SSCs. UPES is the first University in Uttarakhand whose faculty have qualified as PSSC Certified Trainers. A ‘Certificate Presentation Ceremony’ was held at the Bidholi campus of the University to felicitate the qualifying UPES faculty members and award them their ‘Certified Trainers’ credentials. Present on the occasion was Vinod Behari, Chief Executive Officer, and AK Bhagat, Head, Research & Marketing, of the Power Sector Skill Council along with Dr Deependra Jha, Vice Chancellor, UPES, Dr Veena Dutta, Registrar, Dr Kamal Bansal, Dean, SOE, besides many other senior faculty. Vinod Behari and Dr Deependra Jha jointly presented the Certificates to the nine UPES ‘Electrical & Electronics Engineering’ faculty, Balaji Venkateswaran; Deepali Yadav; Devendra Rawat; Dr Devender Kumar Saini; Dr Madhu Sharma; Monika Yadav; Dr Narendra Balkishan Soni; Neeraj Kumar Sharma and Yogesh Chandra Gupta. Congratulating the awardees, CEO Vinod Behari shared that PSSC has developed 11 National Occupational Standards (NOS)/Qualification Packs (QPs) representing major job roles in Power Distribution, Generation & Transmission area. “PSSC is pursuing an ambitious target to skill, train and certify an over 4 million workforce in Power Industry over the next decade. In today’s scenario, the role of Power Distribution Engineer is very important as we are now moving towards e-mobility and Rural Electrification. There is a big demand for skilled Distribution Engineers and Junior Engineers,” he reminded. Dr Deependra Jha emphasized on including more skill oriented courses for students in their curriculum to enhance their employability. Dr Veena Dutta shared that the current ‘Training of Trainers’ was rolled out under the terms of the MoU signed between UPES and PSSC to train the faculty and students of UPES Electrical & Electronics Engineering Department in power system skills. The programme involved 350 hours of rigorous training between 6 July and 3 August.
