New Delhi: The Government of India has identified a consultant for preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for setting up new new Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) and Skill Development Centres (SDC) in the country.

These training centres will be opened in PPP mode to provide training facilities in unserviced blocks.

"Ernst and Young has been selected as consultant from the nine companies that had been short listed for preparing DPR for establishing 1,500 new ITIs and 5,000 Skill Development Centres in PPP mode in unserviced blocks of the country, “Ministry of Labour and Employment Director General Sharda Prasad said.

Consultant would be working with our Ministry for the next three years and will shortlist the private partners, identify the source of revenue and develop the strategy for our endeavor, he added.

To help the youth build their career, training courses are offered through a network of 2,076 ITIs and 5,529 Industrial Training Centres (ITCs) located all over the country. A separate scheme for providing ITIs in North-Eastern Region and Jammu and Kashmir is also being implemented. About 10.62 lakh training seats are available in the ITIs and ITCs with reservation for women, SC/STs, disabled and ex-servicemen.

The Ministry has also planned to upgrade 1,396 ITIs into Centres of Excellence in specific trade and skills under PPP mode, he said adding that  under this scheme, the state government as the owner of the ITI, will continue to regulate admissions and fees, the new management will be given academic and financial autonomy, and the central government will provide financial assistance by way of seed money.

Last year, as against the target of training 10,000 persons, 24,000 persons were actually trained. During the current year at least two lakh persons are likely to get training under the scheme. It has been planned to train one million persons in next five years in Modular Employable Skills (MES), he added.