Bhubaneswar: Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stone for India's first National Skill Training Institute at Barang here that is aimed to impart training to the trainers and create a skill-based ecosystem to meet expectations of the industry.

The institute would provide a variety of hybrid skill training programmes - long term, short term and advanced diploma-type ones.

The institute would provide training in Systems Applications Products (SAP), Internet of things (IoT)- smart cities, health care and agriculture, mobile repairing, solar technician and technician mechatronics, advance diploma in IT networking and cloud computing, training of trainers (ToT) in pedagogy for sector skill councils, ToT for conventional courses - fitter, electrician, plumbing, welding.

The state government has provided five acres free of cost for the purpose, the entire expenditure on account of campus construction, labs, class rooms, hostel and equipment would be incurred by Union ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship.

"The institute will serve the training needs of the local youths with industry-relevant skills, supplement training activities and will build on the demographic advantages of Odisha to truly fuel her growth and development," said Pradhan.

"A large volume of skilled workforce is required in new and emerging technologies to realise the true potential of growth in our country," he said.

SAP India also singed an MoU with the directorate-general of training of the Union ministry for skill development on enterprise software and data sciences at the institute.

The India Skills regional competition is continuing at the SOA University here.

It is the last of the four such regional competitions being organised across India this year. It will witness over 250 competitors from 23 states, with most of them from Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Jharkhand and Meghalaya, competing in 27 skills and trades.

The three-day event that ends on Tuesday will witness counselling camps by professional counsellors, over 50 exhibitions by sector skill councils, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras and other technology partners, along with conference and seminars with various stakeholders in the skill ecosystem.