Mumbai, Jul 17 (PTI) The Maharashtra government is looking at training local workforce as the state is facing a huge challenge of skill gap due to mass migration triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Maharashtra is one of the most industrial states that generated a lot of job opportunities, leading to people migrating from other states.

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"Now, the state is facing the biggest challenge of skill gap due to labour force returning to their villages and towns, panicked by the COVID-19 pandemic," Maharashtra Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Nawab Malik said while addressing the CII-Western Region's conference on 'Future of Skill Training.

The minister said the state government looks forward to employing locally available skilled workforce with industry on an urgent basis through portals like 'swayam'.

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"We are working out on programmes that can help train local people through digital medium as well as on-hand practical training wherever needed, taking into account social distancing norms," he added.

The state government is also orienting the industrial training institutes (ITIs) towards emergent sectors such as solar energy, drones and electric vehicles for long-term intervention, he said.

Maharashtra is also working on the Maharashtra Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (MAPS)) on the lines of the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) and programmes that can impart special 'agri-based skill training centres' for enabling the rural and tribal youth to reinvent and earn through the traditional skilling interventions, the minister added.

Meanwhile, National Skill Development Corporation CEO and Managing Director Manish Kumar, who was present on the occasion, said the lockdown to curb COVID-19 has made digital medium a necessity.

"Even those who were earlier apprehensive of the online platform are appreciating the efficiency of the digital medium. We have created an e-skill India platform that has 400 courses free of cost. In the past few months, more than 2 lakh people have joined the platform from over 20,000 before the COVID-19 disruptions," he added.

There will be a need for offline training as well and we are working on creating a combination of both online and offline curriculums, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)