Lucknow, Jul 11 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government will upgrade the ITIs at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore.

State minister for vocational education, Kapil Dev Agrawal, said, "Soon, we will enter into an agreement with a private organisation for technical upgradation of ITIs. In the first phase, 50 ITIs have been selected. The ITIs will be upgraded at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore."

In addition, the centres will be started in secondary education schools to hone employment skills of students along with imparting them education.

For this, two colleges in every district and as many as 150 colleges across the state have been selected, he informed.

Agrawal said, "Ten new ITIs have been established through the private sector. In these, the training of the candidates will start from August. The construction of 15 new Government ITIs has been completed, which will soon be inaugurated."

Furthermore, he informed that to ensure career opportunities and practical training for the youth, about 10,000 youths have been linked with apprenticeship in hundred days.

"Nearly 50,000 youth have been given employment against the target of 25,000 youth. Besides, we have also made changes to our course and have made it more suitable for our youth to fit into the industry," he said.

He said that in the financial year 2022-23, 29 sectors, in which more than two lakh youths will be trained have been identified. In this, about 10,000 youths will be trained in aviation, 33,021 youth in health, among others.

"The government has planned to promote the usage of drones in farming and agriculture, for this, we will also begin training for operation of drones which will help crop growers," he concluded.