India Skills Kerala Sets a Model for Other States

KOZHIKODE:
The state-level finale of India Skills Kerala 2020 won high appreciation ahead of the event’s national round this year, with World Skills India Project Manager Ashish Malhotra terming the February 22-24 meet as a “very structured and planned” event.

The three-day skills festival, which concluded on Monday, “is an eye-opener for other states who aspire to make a mark in the skill development competitions,” he said at the India Skills Kerala venue in this city.

“We have found champions in quite a lot of skills in the national and international events, as we have considerably improved since 2016 when we started. Kerala being a specific example of front-runner and a proactive state. It is a model which most states would like to follow,” Malhotra said after visiting the venue at Swapna Nagari here.

“Kerala has been collaborating with others in terms of sharing the content so that each state can develop their test projects and training models. It ensures that there is a healthy competition at the national-level,” the official noted.

Wishing the contestants good luck, Ashish added, “I’m sure Kerala will get the champions at the national and international level.”

Odisha Skill Development Authority General Manager Sanjay Pandhi, who was at the competition venues today, commented that the holding of the event in February gives Kerala’s participants certain advantage ahead of the zonal-level competitions of the national round this summer. “It gives them ample time to practise. Other states, including Odisha, are conducting their state-level competitions only in April or May — just before the national round.”

Lauding the organizers, Pandhi said, “I’m impressed with the competition categories. They are being conducted it in a professional way.”

Dipak. S. Desai, Director, Directorate of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Goa, hailed India Skills Kerala as “one of the best competitions” he has ever seen. “There are several challenges in conducting such an event. But Kerala has overcome the challenges successfully,” he said. “We are here to take the best practices from here as Goa is organizing the event for the first time soon.”

India Skills Kerala 2020 was jointly organised by the Industrial Training Department and Kerala Academy for Skills Excellence, both under the State Labour and Skills Department.

The three-day event, which concluded on Monday, gives the prize-winning contestants an opportunity to participate in the national competitions, where the victors get a chance to represent the country at World Skills 2021 at Shanghai in China.