Bhubaneswar, June 13: Odisha government has set an ambitious target of creating 10 lakh skilled manpower in the state in the next five years to meet the needs of upcoming industries.

With this objective, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has asked the Odisha employment mission authorities to set up training institutes across the state at the earliest. As a part of this plan, Naveen will also inaugurate a construction academy at Gopalpur on the outskirts of Cuttack on Thursday. Some 300 students would be enrolled to the academy in the first batch.

“The construction sector has recorded a growth rate of more than 11 per cent. Apart from construction activities taken up by various govt departments, some potential private employers in this sector are Larsen & Toubro, Tata, Simplex, Punj Lloyd, Nagarjuna and Lanco. Skilled people can avail the benefit of the booming construction sector,” said a senior official of the employment, technical education and training department.

Efforts would also be made for mobilisation of youths from rural areas for training in professional skills. “We will enable the youth to become employees through market-linked vocational trainings and enable them to become employed through enterprises,” said employment, technical education and training secretary Chandra Sekhar Kumar.

There is an increasing demand for skilled manpower and the total workforce demand for skilled jobs is expected to grow from the present level of 76 lakh to 1.35 crore in 2026. Highly-skilled work force is required for banking, insurance and associated financial services, and information technology, while skilled work force is required for education, healthcare, automobile and manufacturing industries and semi-skilled work force is required in the fields of tourism, travel, hospitality and construction.

The Odisha government has decided to train at least 1.70 lakh people through various skill-development programmes during 2012-13. Under this plan, some 50,000 people will be trained in the field of construction, 30,000 in textile, 15,000 in driving, 30,000 in manufacturing, 10,000 in health (paramedical), 10,000 in security, 5,000 in hospitality, 5,000 in information technology and enabled services, 10,000 in retail, telecom, banking services and 5,000 in mining sector.

To create skilled manpower in various sectors, the Odisha government has decided to set up at least 43 polytechnic and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). Most of the institutes will come up in the Maoist-affected districts, such as Sambalpur, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Deogarh and Gajapati.