Page 324 - economic review

CAPACITY BUILDING296

7.20 Early detection is key to cancer treatment. The RCC is offering early dection programmes
through cancer control activities of State and Central Governments. The RCC has also been procur-
ing advanced equipments for promt diagnosis and timely treatment of cancer.

Section 2
Skill Development

7.21 Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development of any
country. The economy becomes more productive, innovative and competitive through the existence of
more skilled human potentials. Economy which has better skill workforce can adjust more effectively
to the challenges and opportunities of globalisation. Kerala is on the path of economic prosperity
particularly in service sector. Technological advancement in the existing areas and emergence of
new areas in service sector necessitates not only more personnel but increase the demand for
semi skilled personnel also. There is a severe mis-match between the talents and skills, required by
the industry and skill-sets possessed by workforce. This result in majority of the people remaining
unemployed. National Skill Development Mission envisages producing 500 million skilled manpower
by the year 2022. Based on the population and yearly matriculates of Kerala, 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh skilled
man-power per year has to be trained annually to reach national target.

7.22 One of the advantages of Kerala is its ‘demographic dividend’ with many more young people
entering the workforce. The demographic dividend has a flip side though. If the demographic dividend
is not converted into economic dividends, it is possible that within a generation, the young people
of today having aged, Kerala would have not only lost the advantage of a young population, on the
contrary have become a state where too few young people have to take care of vast numbers of its
aged.

7.23 Much has been done in the recent few years to upgrade Kerala’s skill development regime. But
the existing capacity of skill training institutions in Kerala often generates skills that are below the
international standard

Major initiatives
Craftsman Training

7.24 Industrial Training Department implements Craftsman Training Scheme to ensure a steady flow
of skilled workers in different trades for the domestic industry, raise quantitatively and qualitatively
the industrial production by systematic training, reduce unemployment among the educated youth by
providing them employable training. There are 77 Government ITIs and 486 private ITIs under Industrial
Training Department. In addition to that there are 44 ITIs exclusively for scheduled caste candidates
and 2 ITIs for scheduled tribe candidates under Scheduled Caste Development Department and
Scheduled Tribe Development Department respectively. There are about 80 trades in which seats
are allocated for Craftsman Training with a total seating capacity of 96702.The details of ITIs and its
trade and enrolment are given in the Appendix.The strength and enrolment of Government ITIs are
given in Appendix.7.3.The trade/duration wise intake and out turn of Government ITIs are given in
the Appendix.7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7 and 7.8.

Apprenticeship Training

7.25 The Apprenticeship Training scheme is being conducted as per Apprentices Act, 1961, which was
enacted with the objectives to regulate the programme of training of apprentices in the industry so as
to conform to a standard syllabi, period of training, skill sets etc and to utilize the facilities available in

Kerala State Planning Board