Rajesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary, Higher Technical Education & Skill Development Department, Government of Jharkhand, Wednesday invited industry to capitalise on the industry-oriented policies for industrial development and investment promotion framed by the state government.

The Jharkhand Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy of 2016 aims at converting the state into a favoured destination for investors.

Likewise, the Jharkhand Textile, Apparel and Footwear Policy and the Film Policy have created the right kind of environment for sustainable growth of industries.

Speaking at 'ENGAGE - Employers Network for Generating Aspirational & Gainful Employment: Skill in Jharkhand: Skilling for Future', organised by FICCI and Jharkhand Government, Sharma enumerated the steps taken by the state government for creating a skills ecosystem and said that the state aims to train and skill 20 lakh people by 2022, thus touching the lives of 20% of its youth.

Rajesh Agrawal, Joint Secretary & CVO, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, GoI urged industry to take advantage of the 'demographic bulge' that is more pronounced in Jharkhand by investing in skilling and training the required workforce. Jharkhand has 70% of the population under 35 years with the average age being 27 years.

He said that investors need to view skill development from the standpoint of productivity gains from skilling instead of focusing on the perceived benefits of employing low-cost labour.

He added that there was a need to evangelise apprenticeships of six months to a year for building a short-term skilling ecosystem.

In this context, he commended the Vocational Education & Training (VET) systems adopted by Korea for reaping the benefits of productivity increases.

Devendra Kumar Tiwari, Development Commissioner, Government of Jharkhand, said that skilling the workforce for Industry 4.0 was imperative not just for growth but for making Indian industry competitive. This was important as export growth in the future will be led by export of manpower, he added.

He said that Jharkhand today boasts of an industrial culture that is evidenced by the absence of industrial strikes and loss of man-days. This climate was being improved by a decisive government through its policies.