India’s Pre-Departure Orientation and Training (PDOT) initiative has successfully trained over 120,000 overseas job-seekers, the Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan said in a recent statement.
The program, which was launched by the Indian government in 2018, aims to “enhance soft skills” of prospective Indian migrant workers to the Gulf, especially in the areas of culture, language and traditions of their destination countries
Although the PDOT program is accessible to Indians employed in any part of the world, most of those trained are migrants to the GCC countries because the Gulf region attracts the largest number of Indians taking up employment abroad.
The scheme enhances the intending migrants’ understanding of local rules and regulations in the destination country and increases awareness about pathways to safe and legal migration, Muraleedharan noted.
PDOT training is free of cost for those who join the course, and is now available in 31 cities across India.
“In the aftermath of lockdowns imposed due to COVID-19, an online PDOT module has been introduced by the Ministry of External Affairs as another step towards ensuring safe and legal migration,” the Ministry said.
