Despite ambitious funding plans, the government is relatively clueless about the country?s Industrial Technical Institutes (ITIs). It has no data on how many ITI pass-outs find jobs with the private sector. There are no agencies to track how many seats have been filled up in these 5,488 institutes or even what trades they study there.

All ITIs must be accredited with the ministry of labour. But obviously neither the Centre nor the states play much of a role thereafter. The government plans to spend Rs 2,516 crore until 2012 to train the shopfloor workforce for the manufacturing sector. ?We have no concrete figures about the percentage of students getting employment once they pass out from an ITI. There is no mechanism to get those figures right now. It is believed that in industrialised states such as Gujarat and Maharastra, the employment ratio is relatively higher,? a senior government official told FE.

Dissatisfied with the quality of training, several industries are developing their own modules. A recent survey by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry says more than half the ITIs reported under-utilisation of seats. Of the 110 trades that can be taught, not more than 38 are offered by any ITI. An International Labour Organisation survey carried out a year-and-a-half ago was the last time any such data was obtained, but was restricted to just two or three states.

Waking up to the problem, the government is now planning to put in place a management information system, where all admission data, student performance and placement would be available. Of the total ITIs, the government runs 1,922. The remaining 3,566 are private institutions. Together, they accommodate about 7.85 lakh students annually for courses ranging between six months to three years.

The World Bank is also pitching in to upgrade the performance of the ITIs. This includes upgrading infrastructure in 500 of them. The cabinet committee on economic affairs has recently approved a further upgradation of 300 ITIs at an estimated cost of Rs 774.50 crore under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode during the 11th Plan (2007-12).

An industry management committee, comprising an industry partner, four members of local industry, five nominated members of the state government and the concerned ITI principal, would oversee the process.