Hyderabad, Sep 16 (IANS) Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday laid the foundation stone for Regional Vocational Training Institute (RVTI) here for training women in various vocational courses.

Being set up by Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), the institute will come up on four acres of land at Vidyanagar at a cost of Rs 19.95 crore.

When completed, it will train around 1,000 women every year. It is expected to cater to the vocational training needs of 480 women annually in regular courses under Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS), Craft Instructor’s Training Scheme (CITS) and around same number of candidates in various short term courses.

The courses to be run at the institute include fashion design and technology, architectural assistantship, cosmetology, front office assistant, secretarial practice (English), food and beverages service assistant.

Among those who participated in the event included Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Mohammad Mahmood Ali, Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana and others.

Naidu described setting up of RVTI in Hyderabad as one defining step towards women empowerment. He said it was the duty of all government bodies including gram panchayats, to empower women.

He noted that there was a huge demand for skilled workforce world over and India should use demographic dividend to bridge demand supply gap.

Stating that the country was facing an acute shortage of trainers and teachers under skill development initiatives, the Vice-President said he was delighted to see more avenues of training for trainers.

Pradhan said participation of women in the workforce would certainly lead to the nation’s economic growth.

“To ensure this, we have a target of setting up one RVTI in each state. MSDE is presently running 17 such Institutes across India,” he said.

“Skill training exclusively for women is being provided through the network of 11 Central Government Institutions and 1,408 State Women ITIs and Women Wings in General ITIs. Besides this, 30 per cent of the seats in general ITIs in most of the States are also reserved for Women,” Pradhan added.

The Vice-President also inaugurated five Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs). They have come up at Etah, Aligarh, Phulpur (Uttar Pradesh), Singrauli and Dhar (Madhya Pradesh).

–IANS
ms/qd/vm