KOCHI:
After a great display of skills, talent, passion and determination, winners from Kerala received 16 Gold and 16 Silver medals in the IndiaSkills 2021 Regional Competition, topping the list of Southern Zone winners. Overall, 124 participants today were declared winners of the Southern chapter of IndiaSkills 2021.
Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, Minister of Tourism, Culture & Youth Advancement, Government of Andhra Pradesh felicitated the winners at the closing ceremony held in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Of the total winners, 62 were awarded gold medals with a cash prize of INR 21,000 and 62 received silver medals along with INR 11,000.
The closing ceremony was also graced by the presence of K.K. Raju, Chairman, New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NREDCAP), Challa Madhusudhan Reddy, Advisor to Government (Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation – Skill Development & Training), Konduru Ajay Reddy, Chairman, APSSDC, N. Bangara Raju, Managing Director, APSSDC; and Col. Arun Chandel, Senior Head, WorldSkills India.
The competition witnessed participation of over 400 young participants, aged between 19 and 24 years, from five states—Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala—come together and show their potential in 51 skills such as brick laying, autobody repair, welding, beauty therapy, hotel reception, mobile robotics, health and social care, landscape gardening, carpentry, painting and decorating, web technologies and more. Kerala bagged the highest number of medals (32), followed by Karnataka (29), Tamil Nadu (21), Andhra Pradesh (18) and Telangana (2).
Participants from other states also joined the competition through Wild Card Entry from Track 2 (in states where the competition was not held) and Track 3 (candidates nominated by Industry and corporates). 22 medals were awarded in the Wild Card category.
The opening and closing ceremonies of the IndiaSkills 2021 South Regional Competition were conducted at Andhra University Convention Centre. The winners of all four Regional Competitions (East, West, North and South) will get an opportunity to exhibit their skills at IndiaSkills Nationals to be held in for January 2022. IndiaSkills Nationals gold and silver medalists in each skill will represent the country at the WorldSkills Competition to be held in Shanghai, China (October 2022).
Participants for Regionals have been selected through competitions organised at the district/cluster and state levels in August-September 2021, which recorded over 250,000 registrations. This year, IndiaSkills Regional Competitions brought 1,500 participants from 26 states/union territories across four regions. Patna, Gandhinagar and Chandigarh successfully completed the Eastern, Western and Northern chapters of IndiaSkills Regionals. Visakhapatnam hosted IndiaSkills Regional Competition – South.
During these competitions, participants get multi-level industry training through boot camps and programs such as project-based training, industry and corporate training, exposure visits to industries, mind coaching, and personality development. NSDC, through its Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) and Partner Institutes, train the candidates for the competitions and for future endeavors as well.
NSDC has been leading India’s participation at the WorldSkills Competitions. WorldSkills, the gold standard of skill excellence, is a biennial event that records participation from over 80 nations. Skilled and talented youth from across the world compete on the global platform in multiple skills. In the previous edition of WorldSkills held in Kazan, Russia in 2019, India ranked 13 of 63 participating countries. More than 1,350 candidates participated in 56 skills, and team India gave its best-ever performance by winning four medals—one gold, one silver, two bronze medals—along with 15 Medallions of Excellence.
