Chandigarh: The Punjab government has asked the Vice Chancellors of universities in the state to prepare a blue print of a programme to impart vocational education training to nearly 100,000 unemployed youth.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday asked the VCs to prepare the blue print to launch the programme from the academic session starting April 1, 2010.

Chairing a meeting of the consultative group of the VCs of universities in the state here, Badal asked them to identify the key areas where unemployed youth could be given vocational training.

"The growth and development in terms of physical infrastructure is meaningless until we improve our human resource development through imparting quality education to our youth at all levels of schools, colleges and universities," Badal said.

The Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar would impart vocational training to 10,000 students, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences to 7,000 students, Guru Angad Dev University of Veterinary Sciences to 4,000 students, technical education department through its networks of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics to 10,000 students, Punjabi University in Patiala to 10,000 students, Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar to 10,000 students, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law to 1,000 students, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana to 2,000 students and Panjab University, Chandigarh to 2,000 students during the next academic session.

Besides, departments like agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and rural department would also plan their own vocational training courses to train unemployed youth, especially in rural areas. IANS