Skill gap study carried out in Vizag, East Godavari: Minister Shantanu Thakur

Nellore: Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Shantanu Thakur on Monday informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday that a skill gap study was carried out in 21 coastal districts in the country for estimating the district-wise skilling requirements of workforce, current skill training capacity for providing recommendations to address the skill gaps.

Special focus was given on ports and maritime sector. Responding to a query raised by the Rajya Sabha Member V Prabhakar Reddy, he said the study was carried out in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts.

The Minister also informed the study identified gaps between total demand and supply of skilled manpower in sectors including construction, logistics, tourism and manufacturing along with other sectors. Job roles in ports and maritime sectors which are in high demand were identified in port operations' ship building and repairs, offshore operations, and fisheries.

Further, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and waterways (MoPSW) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) for DDU-GKY Sagarmala convergence programme in May 2017.

MoPSW is funding skill development under Sagarmala-DDU-GKY Convergence programme to enable skilling of coastal population.

Visakhapatnam Port Trust has been identified by MoPSW for setting up of Maritime State Development Council (MSDC).

The operating and management partner has been selected. The building at Visakhapatnam Port Trust has been handed over to the operating partner, the Minister explained.