Jammu, Mar 25: Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary led a high-level stakeholders’ workshop, “Mission SKILL – Transforming the Skilling Ecosystem,” at Jammu’s Convention Centre, aiming to revolutionize Jammu & Kashmir’s skill development landscape. Organized by the Directorate of Skill Development, the event brought together senior officials, industry leaders, academicians, and over 250 trainees.
Choudhary described Mission SKILL as a transformative initiative to build a unified, demand-driven skilling ecosystem in J&K, leveraging the region’s demographic advantage, with over 70% of the population in the working-age group. He emphasized a lifecycle approach to skilling—from school-level vocational exposure to technical training, career guidance, and lifelong learning—aligning programs with industry demands to bridge the gap between education and employment.
The Deputy Chief Minister highlighted the focus on modernizing ITIs and polytechnics, promoting future-ready skills in IT, renewable energy, tourism, and modern services, and ensuring inclusivity for women, rural youth, and marginalized communities. He also stressed a digital-first approach for skill mapping, monitoring, certification, and placement to enable transparency and real-time tracking of outcomes.
Secretary Skill Development Kumar Rajeev Ranjan and other officials underscored the importance of departmental convergence and public-private collaboration. Participants discussed strategies to bridge skill gaps and enhance training outcomes, reinforcing the government’s commitment to creating a skilled, capable, and future-ready workforce in Jammu & Kashmir.