-FICCI TO HELP PUNJAB IN PROMOTION OF QUALITY HIGHER EDUCATION AND UP SKILLING OF YOUTH
Chandigarh: In order to attract more investment in higher education sector, the Invest Punjab today held a roundtable meeting with the North India Higher Education Task Force of the FICCI. 
The flagship programme of ‘Ghar-Ghar Rozgar’ launched on the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh got further impetus when the Task Force of the FICCI joined hands with the state government to make higher education job oriented and up skill the youth to serve the local industry in a far more meaningful and result oriented manner.
Presiding over a meeting with the members of the task force here at Udyog Bhawan on Wednesday, the Additional Chief Secretary Higher Education SK Sandhu asked the private institutions to help the state government for imparting vocational training to the students so as to enable them to be gainfully employed. Besides, he also impressed upon the industry to generate tremendous employment potential to absorb the skilled youth trained by these institutions.
ACS Higher Education also apprised the task force that core groups would be set up separately for higher and technical education for equipping the youth for getting suitable jobs in accordance with emerging needs of the local industry. Giving details about plan to provide higher education at grass root level, Mr. Sandhu said that the government was planning to set up 50 more new colleges to provide educational facilities to the youth at Sub-Divisional level in the state.
Exhorting the private institutions to invest in higher education, Mr. Sandhu said that the state government has already formulated a policy to encourage the private colleges and private institutions to further impart higher education in every nook and corner of the state. He also asked these institutions to make relevant changes in curriculum and syllabus from future perspective.
Secretary, Skill Development and Technical Education Mr. D K Tiwari said that state government under the stewardship of Captain Amarinder Singh has started several courses of foreign languages to enable the youth to better their job prospects especially overseas. He also called FICCI representatives to set up new colleges and smart classrooms as per international parameters. He suggested that during the four year courses one year practical training should be made mandatory so that students could be properly skilled after leaving the college. He also mentioned that the state government has also commenced ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar and Karobar’ scheme under which international Job Fairs would also be organized shortly.
CEO, Invest Punjab Mr. Rajat Aggarwal asked the industry to make adequate investments in the promotion of higher education under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He said that higher education sector has already made enormous contribution in the national human resource development. He hoped that the synergy between the private institutions and industry would help the state government to propel higher education at international level. Additional Chief Administrator, GAMADA Mr. Rajesh Dhiman also gave information about the rules and regulations for setting up new educational institutes.
‘FICCI’ Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh Head Mr. G B Singh assured the state government of fulsome support and cooperation to compliment government’s endeavour to promote quality education to the youth especially the unprivileged ones across the state besides raising the standard and quality of higher education.
