In a strategic meeting between Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Yogi Adityanath, Honourable Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, in Lucknow, a joint decision was made to set-uptwo Skill Centre of Excellence (CoEs).

One of the CoEs to be set up in Greater Noida for Plumbing and one in Varanasi for the Services Sector.

The two centres will be international state-of-the-art infrastructure which will be created under joint collaboration between the State and the Centre, where the State will provide the land for setting up the two buildings.

The infrastructure and training delivery will be supported by the respective Sector Skill Councils and the industry partners to make it relevant to market demand and trends.

Furthering the push on creating world class infrastructure for skill development in the State, it was jointly decided that the India Institute of Skills (IIS) in Kanpur, will soon be operational.

The Centre was conceptualized by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi himself during his visit to Singapore's Institute of Technical Education and its foundation was also laid by him.

The institute will be opened in partnership with the Institute of Technical Education, Singapore and will have around 10-12 labs and will not only focus on hard skills from manufacturing sector but also on skills related to service sector.

Reassuring support from the Centre to the State, Mahendra Nath Pandey said, “MSDE will work closely with Government of Uttar Pradesh to ensure world class infrastructure for skilling and will ensure the up-skilling and re-skilling of its youth under our programs making them market relevant.”

Commenting on the partnership, Yogi Adityanath said, “We have been focusing on our clusters in UP for skill development through our One District One Product scheme. Our focus is also towards our farmer community and we will work together with the Central government to up-skill them to today’s time and age enhancing their productivity, leading to better livelihood.”

The meeting also had detailed discussions around re-energising the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) ecosystem in the State and focus on its upgradation and modernization.

There are a total of 3,134 ITIs in the State with a seating capacity of 7.58 lakh with close to 5.63 lakh students getting trained in them. Under the joint collaboration of State and Central Government, 1396 ITIs have been upgraded through a public private partnership model.