NSDC Adviser wants to set up skill dev centre in city

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, February 19

After being appointed Adviser to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Dr Sandeep Singh Kaura whose family hails from Amritsar’s Malowal village, would like to open a Skill India International Centre in the holy city.

The recent Union Budget proposed to set up 30 such centres across the country and as a pilot project, the first such centre in the country has been opened in Varanasi. Currently working as Chancellor, Lamrin Tech Skills University, Punjab, Dr Kaura passed out from the commerce department of Khalsa College in 1998. An ideal example for the contemporary youth, Kaura had a humble childhood. His father Kuldeep Singh was a constable in the Punjab Police. The family, comprising three brothers and a sister, had shifted to Krishna Nagar in the Jodda Phatak area for better education. Being an adviser to the Skill Development and Technical Education Department, Punjab, headed by the Chief Minister, he had pleaded the case of providing employment to the next of kin of the victims of Dasehra rail tragedy. Later, all of them had received jobs.

At the national level, he has been tasked to map the requirement of professionals in foreign countries. For this, he said he would go on to collaborate with professional agencies of that country and develop the same skills among the youth here. This will ultimately lead to an increase in inward remittances and automatically decrease the outflow of rupee. To drive his vision, the implementation strategy will be to bring together international accreditation and certification bodies, overseas employers and international training partners by preparing the young workforce in domain and linguistic skills, as per the globally benchmarked standards. Governed by the Union Ministry of Skill Development, the NSDC is a Central department established with a focus on positioning India as the supply hub of skilled workforce across the globe, this would remain his objective too, he said.

Dr Kaura, who was a fellow from the University of Oxford and a doctoral research fellow at ISB Hyderabad, has been working towards laying a solid foundation for strengthening the skilling ecosystem within countries of origin having a surplus supply of young workforce, as well as countries of destinations facing an acute shortage of skilled workforce. City-based residents are hopeful that he would introduce genuine demands related to the holy city like establishment of a Central Skill Development Centre.