Skilling India: GoI’s Initiatives

Skilling India: GoI’s Initiatives

Question: Skill development is a crucial aspect of good governance in modern India. Discuss the government’s initiatives with respect to skill development.

- Skill India is one of the leading initiatives for Indians to achieve more skills

- Combination of economic, demographic and social factors are the reason skill development is an urgent priority for India

- MSDE’s role is to steer coordinate and converge skill development programmes

- PPP mode has been used for skill development sector for scaling up industry linkages

- Skill and entrepreneurship are encouraged through policy and programme initiatives

Policy initiatives

- National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015

- National Skill Development Mission

- Common Norms for Skill Development

Schemes and Programmes

Pardon Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana: Aims to incentivise young persons to enrol in skill development programmes

- PMKVY was launched by the NSDC and seeks to create new job opportunities for Indians to acquire key skills for employment

- Industrial Training Institutes under the Ministry of Labour and Employment were transferred to MSDE

- Additionally, 34 ITIs and 68 Skill Development Centres are also being set up in 34 LWE affected areas

Strategic partnerships have also taken place between MSDE and the following ministries:

- Social Justice and Empowerment (Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities), Health and Family Welfare,

- Steel,
- Mines,
- Railways,
- Defence

- Chemicals and Fertilisers (Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals,

- NSDC plays a key role in skill development and works with 235 training partners and 38 approved Sector Skills Councils; this ecosystem has trained 55 lakh people up to July 2015

- NSDA is also an important normative body which has approved 1226 Qualification Packs, across 28 different trade and developed a framework for RPL.

Facts and Stats

- 54% of Indians are below 25 years of age and around 62% of the population is within the working age group

- Only 4.69% of the population has received formal skills training

- By the year 2025, around 1 in 5 of the working population in the world is from India

- This constitutes 18.3% of the working age population

- Close to 109 million incremental human resources will be acquired across 24 key sectors by 2022

- 93% of India’s workforce work in unorganised sector and gain skills through informal channels, lacking formal certification

- India’s first department for skill development and entrepreneurship was established in July 2014

- MSDE has based skill development programmes namely coordination, private sector participation, entrepreneurship linkages, equity etc