Nagpur: The Confederation of Indian Industries' (CII) initiative in imparting skill training to hundreds of youths at their centre at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, near here has slowly gained momentum with unemployed youths in the area. CII has committed itself to a mission of 'Making India the skills Capital of the World'. As a part of this Mission, CII started its skill imparting initiative in Chhindwara in September 2008, to train rural youth and make them employable. The Centre now has its full fledged campus, training facility along with the hostel facility for students. Union Minister for National Highways Kamal Nath who represents the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency is the brain behind the project which was inaugurated last month by noted industrialist and CII President Adi Godrej. Skill development is the next big thing in India as we have many educated people but very few skilled and trained manpower. He also said that success of any project depends on the participation of people. CII has said that India has not yet realised its full potential because of inadequate trained & skilled manpower. It emphasised that the main reason behind it is most education institutes are not imparting employable skills. Also, very few young people actually enter the world of work with any kind of formal or informal training. The CII Centre aims to bridge the gap and help creating employable workforce. The CII reiterated the need for more skilled manpower in electrical sector particularly in genset manufacturing. He also requested other participating industries to offer support in this initiative. The CII Skills initiative in Chhindwara is 'one-of-its kind', conceptualised and driven by industry, and aimed at creating talent pool of trained manpower for industry. The initiative initially started with just three construction sector companies like, JCB Ltd, Punj Lloyd Ltd and Larsen & Toubro Ltd training in four trades -- back-hoe loader operator, multi-skills (welder-fitter-grinder) and bar bender respectively. Later, automotive sector was introduced by Toyota Kirloskar Motors which launched the Toyota -Technical Education Programme after remodeling it to suit rural youth. Today around about 960 rural youths have been trained in the last three and half years. About 300 found employment and approximately 70 undertook self employment. After three and half years, at present, there are eight companies on board, offering training in 11 trades. The eight companies are: Cummins India Ltd, GMMCO Ltd, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, JCB India Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co Ltd and Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited. As the Centre gears up to offer training by these industry partners, 1500 youth are expected to train annually in this initial phase.