By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 17, 2018: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday laid the foundation stone of India’s first National Skill Training Institute (NSTI) here.

The proposed institute will impart training to trainers and create a skill-based ecosystem to meet the industry demands.

“Setting up of this NSTI in Bhubaneshwar, is yet another step to empower the youth of the State and cater to their training needs with industry-relevant skills, supplement training activities and build on demographic advantages of Odisha to truly fuel her growth and development make them job ready for industries functioning here. This would also help us address the issue of migration,” Pradhan said on the occasion.

Government of India has introduced an array of national and state level projects like Make in India, Digital India, Smart Cities, Clean India, Urja Ganga Gas Pipeline Project and Sagarmala Port Project; for which we would needs skilled workforce, Pradhan said adding that Skill India is a demand driven program which trains people in job roles which are market relevant and of current industry needs and standards.

He said that a large skilled workforce is required in new and emerging technologies to realize the country’s growth potential.

The Institute costing Rs 160 crore will come up over five acres of land and have state-of-the-art facilities.

The Minister said the new institute will also impart training to trainers at various Industrial Training Institutes and for other skill-based education.

“We aim to set up one NSTI in each state very soon,” he added.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the National Small Industries Corporation for starting a temporary campus of NSTI Bhubneswar at the latter’s premises at Mancheswar industrial area here.

The Ministry has also roped in market leaders like IBM, NASSCOM and SAP India Pvt Ltd through MoUs to develop courses on latest technologies, which will be imparted at this institute.

While the IBM has extended support with courses at the advanced diploma level in IT networking and cloud computing, NASSCOM will develop courses on Internet of Things. SAP will assist in imparting skills on enterprise resource planning and data sciences.

Another MoU was signed between the Directorate of General Training and SAP wherein the latter will train a pool of trainers at NSTI Bhubaneswar on Business One enterprise software.

After the master training, NSTI trainers will run these programmes autonomously for the youth.

SAP will also conduct a special training on data sciences for participants/faculty at NSTI.