Patna: Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik on Friday came down heavily on skill development centres mushrooming in Bihar, saying such units have become a huge business for some people.

To end the clout of mafias involved in this thriving trade, Malik said proper inspection is required on such skill development centres.

Malik was speaking at the daylong seminar on vocational education, challenges and strategies organised by labour department at a city hotel on Friday. He was the chief guest.

Vice-chancellors, pro-vice-chancellors and officials of the education and labour departments attended the event.

Malik said: "It is the need of the hour to upgrade the skills among the youths. They should be provided skill-development trainings so that they don't become job seekers but job providers."

He said it is not possible for a government to provide jobs to everyone, but imparting skill development training to youths can help them become entrepreneurs.

Under Kaushal Vikas Yojana, a Union government project, there are around 1,560 Kaushal Vikash Kendras in the state. The kendras provide three-month training to youths, mostly after clearing matriculation and Intermediate, on the fundamentals of computer, soft skills, language and basic English. The three-month training is free but candidates have to pay Rs 1,000 as admission fee, which is refundable after completing the course.

The state provides monetary assistance to such skill development training institutes. Apart from the Kaushal Vikash Kendra, there are many skill-enhancing centres running privately.

Chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh said skill development and vocation education is the need of the hour.

Anjani said: "We were late in introducing vocational education to our youths, as it was introduced in the mainstream education late."

The chief secretary said though Bihar was late in introducing vocational education in the mainstream education, it has gained popularity as more and more students are joining the course.

The chief secretary stressed the need for imparting proper training to teachers who are into vocational courses to at universities and colleges.

The event's main thrust was on the role of universities and colleges in imparting vocational studies among students.

A university pro-VC at the event said: "Many colleges in our university are running vocational courses for the past few years, but the problem is that even after completing the courses students are not getting jobs because of non-functional placement cells."

Echoing the views of the pro-VC, Kumar Tanmay, a BBA student of Patna University, said: "Neither the department has a placement cell nor is there an industry interface through which we can get jobs."