LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh is taking a significant leap in its mission to empower the state’s youth with relevant skills and employment opportunities. In a groundbreaking move, the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission has allocated record-breaking targets for the financial year 2025-26, using an AI-based platform for the first time ever. This innovative approach aims to align skill development with the industrial needs of each district, ensuring a more scientific and demand-driven process.
AI-Driven Analysis for Targeted Allocation
Under the guidance of the Principal Secretary and Mission Director, an AI platform was used to conduct a detailed analysis of each district’s industrial demand, available resources, employment capacity, and past achievements. This data-driven approach has enabled the mission to allocate targets to training providers on a district-by-district basis, ensuring a more balanced and effective distribution of resources. To prevent the dominance of a few institutions, each training provider has been limited to a maximum of five districts.
Focus on Aspirational Districts and Inclusive Growth
The new policy prioritizes aspirational districts and blocks, ensuring that 100% of them are covered by training centers. Recognizing the superior quality and attendance in residential training programs, the government has dramatically increased its allocation from a mere 1% last year to a substantial 36%. Furthermore, to bridge the gap between training and employment, the participation of industrial units has been boosted from 3% to 47%, ensuring that training is tailored to the specific needs of the industry.
Collaboration with Invest UP and CDOs
The government is also collaborating with Invest UP to forecast the future skill requirements of major industrial projects being established in the state, ensuring that a skilled workforce is readily available. District Chief Development Officers (CDOs) have been roped in to analyze employment capacity and local job market needs. The new initiative also includes the introduction of short-term courses in Tata-covered ITI institutions.
Empowering Women, Persons with Disabilities, and Future-Ready Skills
In a move towards inclusive growth, the government has mandated a 33% reservation for women and a 5% reservation for persons with disabilities in all training programs. The curriculum is also being updated to include futuristic and in-demand skills such as Drone Technology, Robotics, Machine Learning, Digital Technology, Content Creation, Green Jobs, and Solar Energy. Specialized institutions like CIPET and UPICO have also been allocated 810 targets to provide specialized training and new career pathways for the youth.
