Skill development in India to be revamped: Rohit Nandan

Sanjay Bhatnagar

New Delhi: In a major policy shift, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) is going for a massive revamping with fresh focus on informal training to boost employability, Union Secretary Rohit Nandan said here on Thursday.

"The dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will assume the proposition of a 'public movement' to include informal component in a big way beside of making some paradigm shift in the current structure,'' he said in an exclusive interview with newztrack.com.

The skilled manpower had never been a problem in the country like India and the only need of the hour was to channelise the training part in uncomplicated manner, Nandan added.

He said the new initiatives were aimed at increasing the number of apprentices in the jobs manifold from the present number of 30 lakh as compared to two crore in China and one crore in Japan. "We will achieve it in two years time at current pace,'' he claimed.

Policy Interventions:

• The year 2014 saw the launch of Skill India , lead by newly created Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), to leverage the potential of India’s aspiring youth by equipping them with the skills required to acquire sustainable livelihoods.
• A clear policy framework for skilling established for the first time in India.
• India's first national policy for skill development and entrepreneurship 2015 created to rejuvenate India's skill ecosystem.
• India's first National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) launched in July,2015 to coordinate and scale up skilling efforts.
• Common norms for skill development schemes across India notified to ensure standardisation.
• MSDE's Flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Kuashal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) launched in which 18 lakh youth have been enrolled and over 10 lakh have completed training.

Proposed changes:

• As many as 650 iconic skill training centres will be opened one each in every district of the country to provide access to high quality, aspirational skill training opportunities for short-term courses across the country.
• Instead of 40 odd certification agencies , a National Board for Skills Assessment and Certification will be set up.
• The Board will act as a one stop shop for examinations, assessments and awarding national level certificates in compliance with National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) , for skill development courses in the country.
• As a police addition,the informal training will exist co-laterally with class room training but in a big way with small groups to be trained in skills in small groups in urban as well as rural areas.

Two new World Bank Projects:

• Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE).
• Skill Training for Employability leveraging Public Private Partnership (STEPPP) to be implemented in mission mode through WB support to achieve the objectives laid down in the NSDM.

Some more initiaves:

• Two new Apprentice Training Institutes for Women to be set up in Haryana and Uttarakhand.
• 27 new Advanced Training Institutes (ATI) under PPP mode set up for training of trainers throughout the country.]
• 1500 Multi Skill Training Institutes (MSTIs) to be established with active participation of Industries/Private partners.