The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Monday inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to train students with requisite employability skills.

CII director general Chandrajeet Banerjee and IGNOU registrar Laxman signed the agreement. Labour Secretary Sudha Pillai and IGNOU Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai were also present at the signing ceremony.

'In a study conducted in India, it was found that only five percent of the workforce from labour intensive sector had certification from a credible institution in comparison to other developed countries like Korea, the US, the UK, where the figure stood at 80 percent,' Rajasekharan Pillai said.

If this number is increased to 10 percent, India's productivity will double. "With this vision in mind, we have chosen to partner with the CII to build a dream for India's future," he added.

The project proposes to offer programmes in the areas of security and fire safety, construction, travel and tourism, personality development and soft skills and spoken English.

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