The State government has launched the Knowledge Economy Mission to bring the ongoing efforts to provide employment to the educated and support ‘knowledge workers’ under a single programme.
Announcing the initiative in the State Budget on Friday, Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal said the project was being spearheaded by Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC) that had been tasked with submitting a comprehensive project report before July 15.
A plan would be drawn up to provide basic facilities and a social security system for knowledge workers, working close to their homes and interacting with employers.
Providing impetus to such efforts, the allocation for the ‘knowledge economy fund’ meant for skill promotion, technological transformation, and strengthening of higher education system had been hiked from ₹200 crore to ₹300 crore.
Mr. Balagopal added that the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University had set up the Kerala Digital Work Force Management System that registered over 27,000 job aspirants thus far. Considered a sub-mission of the Kudumbasree Mission, the project entailed training its workers as well as executives of K-DISC and Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP).
The ICT Academy also set up a system to evaluate the profiles of educated unemployed youth, provide them with career counselling, and enrol them in micro-training programmes. Expression of interest had been invited as a first step for setting up a mechanism to link professional HR agencies and placement officers within it. While recruitment portal ‘Monster’ had been cooperating with the government’s Kerala Knowledge Mission for providing employment, freelance marketing network ‘Freelancer.com’ also expressed their interest.
Higher Education
The government would also constitute a high-power commission to examine the education system and suggest steps to rebuild the sector to develop capacity for knowledge creation. A restructuring had been targeted from school level to higher education level including research to spur knowledge production and ensure its wide application across Kerala. The commission would submit its report within three months.
The government also intended to expedite the development of the Sree Narayana Guru Open University by setting up basic facilities. The budget had earmarked an amount of ₹10 crore in addition to the allocation that was made in the previous one.
Published - June 04, 2021 12:48 pm IST
