Centre for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship

July 15, 2016 is celebrated as World Youth Skill Day by the United Nations with a theme of ‘Skills Development to Improve Youth Employment’. International Labour Organization (ILO) published that youth unemployment rate is 13.1% because of mismatch between the skills that workers in the economy can offer and skills demanded of workers by employers. Young people are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and continuously exposed to lower quality of jobs, greater labour market inequalities, and longer and more insecure education-to-work transitions. In addition, women are more likely to be underemployed and under-paid, and to undertake part-time jobs or work under temporary contracts.

On this occasion ‘Centre for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship’, and UIET, Panjab University organized one day awareness programme on ‘Entrepreneurship Development’ to enhance the entrepreneurial skills of the students of Panjab University. Chief guest Professor Navdeep Goyal, Dean Student Welfare, PU shared that entrepreneurship is a complete cycle involving idea generation, proof of concept, investment, product manufacturing, sales & return. If this cycle is not complete within 60 days to 120 days then the enterprise cannot survive. He mentioned by entering into enterprising students can generate employment. Detailed Project Report (DPR) preparation involving experts from manufacturing and accounts along with social scientist can give a boost to new ideas. University is also involving industrial bodies for updating of curriculum and mentoring of the students. Guest of Honor, Dr. Varinder Garg, OSD to Union Health Minister, GoI has quoted the successful stories of farm equipment manufactures which started from import of machinery then local manufacturing with meager funds and brought Green revolution in Punjab. Now these entrepreneurs are big industrial houses. He said that need analysis of the society can give ideas to start new ventures. Prof. Rupinder Tiwari also motivated participants to convert their innovative ideas into startups. He also mentioned about the seed grant available with university for experimenting with such ideas. Sh. A. Dinesh Pangotra, Consultant, NIESBUD, GoI shared the schemes of Govt. of India to start entrepreneurship. 106 students, research scholars and faculty members from different departments participated in the event. Participants have an interactive session with the experts and many ideas are discussed upon.