Pune: A high-level meeting on starting a skill development college under Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) was held on Wednesday at the campus which was attended by the experts from the field and officials of Bharatiya Skill University, Rajasthan and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

Vice-Chancellor (VC) of SPPU, Nitin Karmalkar, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NSDC, Manish Kumar, VC of Bharatiya Skill University, Rajasthan, Brig SS Pabla, Director of Higher Education, Dhanraj Mane, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Shivaji University, DT Shirke, Director of Technical Education, Abhay Wagh, President of National Yuva Cooperative Society, Rajesh Pandey, Registrar of SPPU, Arvind Shaligram, Head of Skill Development Centre, Pooja More and many more experts in the area of skill development were present.

“We at our university emphasise more on work experience than academic experience as this is the need of the hour as per industrial requirements. Because of which, many students were absorbed in the industry immediately after six months of their course. Generally, to start a school or college based on skill development, we require an amount of Rs 75 crore while to set a university it takes at least Rs 500 crore of expense,” said Pabla.

“When it comes to skill development, we only focus on the manufacturing sector but the service sector has also grown largely in terms of job opportunities. More the people improve their skills, it will help the country to develop in terms of revenue,” said Kumar.