Industry leaders from across 18 major sectors came together in a series of CxO Meets organised under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) held between 15^th to 21^st October, 2021. The CxO Meets, were facilitated by State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLM) from the States of Assam, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Tamil Nadu (TN) and Gujarat, commemorating 75 years of Indian independence under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Virtual CxO Meet in Jharkhand

Industry leaders from various sectors and Sector Skills Councils came together to discuss and deliberate upon attempts to further the buoyant labour market for the future generations. Some of the sectors that saw participation include Tourism & Hospitality, Retail, Logistics & Apparel, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, IT-ITES, Automotive, Renewable Energy, Agriculture, Healthcare, Construction, Capital Goods, Production to name a few. Senior management from market leaders like BMW, Hyundai, The Park Hotel, Barbeque Nation, Leela Palace, Oberoi & Trident – Mumbai, Vivanta, Wow! Momo Foods Pvt Ltd etc. shared their views on how CxO meets serve as a learning platform for all stakeholders and the criticality of regular interactions between training partners and employers.

Virtual CxO Meet in Assam

Each participating State focussed on a specific trade- Assam (Tourism & Hospitality); Jharkhand (Retail, Tourism, Finance, Logistics & Apparel); MP (Logistics & Apparel); Gujarat (Beauty & Wellness Sector Skill Council, Healthcare Sector Skill Council, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Logistics Sector Skills Council, IT-ITES, Capital Goods etc), Tamil Nadu (Automative).

CxO Meet in Madhya Pradesh

Discussions were also held on issues pertaining to training, placement & post-placement help, retention and career progression of candidates trained under the DDU-GKY programme. The role of the SRLMs in mitigating shortage of skilled manpower, responding to the periodic demand of skilled manpower, salaries, preference of certain sectors in hiring women candidates etc. through the DDU-GKY programme was also discussed at length.

CxO Meet in Gujarat

During the discussions between industry experts and SRLMs, it was observed that the logistics sector was fast emerging as a lucrative option, given the boom in E-commerce platforms and hence increasing job prospects of trained manpower in the sector. The CxO Meets also served as a platform for establishing new industry linkages and building on to the current ones, by establishing and facilitating a mutually benefiting partnership between training partners and industries, ensuring candidates trained under the DDU-GKY programme get suitable employment opportunities.

CxO Meet in Tamil Nadu

About Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY)

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) was started with an ambitious agenda to benchmark wage placement-linked programs to global standards. Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) revamped the placement linked skill development program under National Rural Livelihood Mission as DeenDayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) on the 25th of September, 2014. DDU-GKY is a nationwide placement-linked skill training program funded by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India (GoI). The program is currently being implemented in 27 States and 4 UTs and has over 2369 Training Centres conducting training across 57 sectors, and over 616 job-roles. Under DDU-GKY, a total of 11.09 lakh candidates have been trained and 7.13 lakh placed as on 30th September 2021.

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APS/JK/IA