Current Affairs
Skill India Campaign
Skill development and entrepreneurship efforts across the country have been highly fragmented so far. As opposed to developed countries, where the percentage of skilled workforce is between 60 percent and 90 percent of the total workforce, India records a low 5 percent of workforce (20-24 years) with formal vocational skills.
As per 2013 report, around 61percent of Indian employers surveyed, had pointed out that inadequate skills of the candidates had hindered their chances of filling the vacancies in their respective companies. Only 14 pct of Indian workforce has good hand over interpersonal skills and 10 pct has good communication skills.
As the country embarks to set the vision ‘Make in India’ the question raises as to whether India has achieved the required technical curricula and skilled manpower.
There is a need for speedy reorganization of the ecosystem of skill development and entrepreneurship promotion in the country to suit the needs of the industry and enable decent quality of life to its population.
It is in this light; Prime Minister NarendraModi on 15 July 2015 formally launched four initiatives- National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015, National Skill Development Mission (NSDM), PradhanMantriKaushalVikasYojana (PMKVY) and Skill Loan scheme-aimed at achieving the vision of Skill India.
They were launched in a programme held on the occasion of first-ever World Youth Skills Day in New Delhi.
National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015
Prime Minister NarendraModi on 15 July 2015 unveiled National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 in New Delhi. It is the first such policy on entrepreneurship since independence and intended to replace the National Policy on Skill Development 2009.
Objectives
Related to Skill Development: To make quality vocational training aspirational for both youth and employers, focus on an outcome based approach towards quality skilling, increase the capacity and quality infrastructure, establish an IT base duality infrastructure for aggregating demand and supply of skilled workforce and promote increased participation of women in the workforce among others.
Related to Entrepreneurship: To promote entrepreneurship culture and make it aspirational, enhance support for potential entrepreneurs through mentorship and networks and integrate entrepreneurship education in the formal education system among others.
Policy Framework for Skill Development
The framework outlines the following eleven major paradigms and enablers to achieve the objectives of the policy.
Aspiration and Advocacy
•• A National Campaign will be launched within three months to create awareness and a positive pro-¬skillig environment.
•• National Skills Universities and institutes will be promoted in partnership with States as centres of excellence for skill development and training of trainers, either as de-novo institutions or as a part of existing university landscape.
•• Skilling will be integrated with formal education by introducing vocational training classes linked to the local economy from class nine onwards in at least 25% of the schools, over the next five years.
•• To further the aspiration and respect associated with skilling, National Skill Awards will be instituted in close association with major stakeholders.
•• The Prime Minister’s Skill Development Fellow Scheme will be introduced to tap talented, young individuals who will work with the State and District administration to spread awareness about skill development, identify the local needs and steer skill development efforts in the region.
Capacity
•• By designing suitable incentive schemes, existing infrastructure both in terms of buildings and potential teachers would be optimally leveraged for skill training. They include utilistation of over 1.55 million schools, 25000 colleges, 3200 polytechnics and 83 youth hostels, around 1.5 lakh post offices and over 1 lakh kiosks across the country.
•• Apprenticeship will further be incentivised in the MSME sector through appropriate schemes for sharing of stipend etc. Government will target a tenfold increase in apprenticeship opportunities in the next five years.
•• Further, services sector will also be brought under the ambit of apprenticeship.
Quality
•• One Nation One Standard should become the mantra to ensure that national standards and quality for skilling are globally aligned and Indian youth can aspire to secure local, national and international job opportunities.
•• Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) will be done that includes pre¬assessment, skill gap training and final assessment leading to certification of existing skills in an individual.
Synergy
•• Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), which has been set up to coordinate skill development efforts in the country will within three months, notify common norms for rationalization of Central Government Schemes on Skill Development.
•• A national Labour Market Information System (LMIS) will be created to generate key analysis and reports which will determine policy interventions by different.
••government stakeholders and the industry at large.
•• Skilling efforts will be completely aligned with the requirements of 25 key identified sectors of Make in India.
Mobilization and Engagement
•• The industry should earmark at least 2 percent of its payroll bill (including for contract labour) for skill development initiatives in their respective sector. These funds can be channelized for skill development activities either through the respective SSCs or through National Skill Development Fund (NSDF).
•• Industry should actively participate in designing curricula and standards for skill training courses.
Global Partnerships
•• Institutional arrangements through joint working groups, secretariats, etc will be established for regular exchange of knowledge, experiences, research findings, teaching and learning materials, and innovations in skill development.
•• Foreign Governments, corporate and agencies will also be encouraged to set up skill centres and universities as well as participate in content creation, design of curricula and delivery of training.
•• Government would promote a skills training ecosystem that would also enable training and placement of Indian boys and girls in overseas jobs. The ageing developed world is expected to face a huge skill shortage while our country has the potential to reap its demographic advantage and export skilled labour to the world.
Outreach
KVKs will play a pivotal role in identifying local employment opportunities and providing adequate training and post¬training support according to needs of local areas such as migration support for skilled workers.
A National Skills Research Division (NSRD), will be constituted within NSDA at the national level to conduct skill surveys including aggregation of the environmental scans done by SSCs, study emerging demand trends, operate the LMIS and other skilling platforms and databases.
•• A National Campaign including through a dedicated TV and radio channel, and skilling camps will be initiated to promote interest and mobilize the youth for skilling.
ICT Enablement
•• The use of technology will be leveraged to scale up training facilities, enable access to remote areas and increase cost¬ effectiveness of delivery of vocational training.
•• An open platform for e¬content on skill development will be created where further curated content will be crowd sourced.
•• Government envisions to leverage the facility of Digital Locker for creation of Skill Cards linked to Aadhaar for the labour force trained and certified as per NSQF
Trainers and Assessors
•• A trainer/assessor portal will be set up as a part of the National Portal to act as a repository and registration database for all certified and interested trainers/assessors.
•• New institutes for training of trainers will be set up in PPP mode, at least one in each State, to increase the overall capacity of ToT in the country.
Inclusivity
•• Adequate focus will be given to youth from deprived households by establishing skill development centres in areas which are underserved.
•• Special attention needs to be given to youth residing in border, hilly and difficult areas, including North Eastern states, J&K, and the hilly forested areas of central and eastern India to address their needs for employment and employability.
Promotion of Skilling amongst Women
• • Special mechanisms in the delivery of training such as mobile training units, flexible afternoon batches, training based on the local needs of the area, will be introduced to ensure participation and mobilization of women.
• • Training in non¬traditional fields for women will be promoted through the establishment of specific training programmes that focus on life skills training modules and literacy training.
Policy Framework for Entrepreneurship
To unlock entrepreneurial potential the following nine part entrepreneurship strategy was proposed under the policy.
• Educate and equip potential and early stage entrepreneurs across India
• Connect entrepreneurs to peers, mentors and incubators
• Support entrepreneurs through Entrepreneurship Hubs (E¬Hubs)
• Catalyse a culture shift to encourage entrepreneurship
• Encourage entrepreneurship among under¬represented groups
• Promote entrepreneurship amongst women
• Improve ease of doing business
• Improve access to finance
• Foster social entrepreneurship and grassroots innovations
Governance Structure and Financing
MSDE will be responsible for implementation of the policy. In order to achieve the objectives enshrined in the policy the Prime Minister also launched the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) aimed at implementing and coordinating all skilling efforts.
Financing
• National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) will be utilized for implementation of skilling efforts under the policy.
• To attract funds from industry, companies will be encouraged to spend at least 25 percent of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds on skill development initiatives directly or through NSDF.
• All Government schemes across sectors will be encouraged to apportion a certain percentage (10%) of the scheme budget towards skilling of human resources in local regions in the required sector.
• A Credit Guarantee Fund for skill development and a National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) has been set up to support the initiative of loans for the purpose of skilling and will be used to leverage credit financing in the skill landscape.
• A Policy Implementation Unit (PIU) will be set up so as to review the implementation and progress of the various initiatives under this policy. The PIU will be housed in MSDE with Secretary as the Chairperson and representation from NITI Aayog.
National Mission for Skill Development (NMSD)
Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) on 15 July 2015 launched the National Mission for Skill Development (NMSD). The NMSD was launched to provide the overall institutional framework to rapidly implement and scale up skill development efforts across India.
The Mission seeks to provide the institutional capacity to train a minimum of 300 million skilled people by the year 2022.
Objectives of the Mission
• Create an end-to-end implementation framework for skill development, which provides opportunities for life-long learning.
• Align employer/industry demand and workforce productivity with trainees’ aspirations for sustainable livelihoods, by creating a framework for outcome-focused training.
• Establish and enforce cross-sectoral, nationally and internationally acceptable standards for skill training in the country.
• Build capacity for skill development in critical un-organized sectors and provide pathways for re-skilling and up-skilling workers in this sector, to enable them to transition into formal sector employment.
• Ensure sufficient, high quality options for long-term skilling, benchmarked to internationally acceptable qualification standards, which will ultimately contribute to the creation of a highly skilled workforce.
• Develop a network of quality instructors/trainers in the skill development ecosystem by establishing high quality teacher training institutions.
• Leverage existing public infrastructure and industry facilities for scaling up skill training and capacity building efforts.
• Support weaker and disadvantaged sections of society through focused outreach programmes and targeted skill development activities.
• Propagate aspirational value of skilling among youth, by creating social awareness on value of skill training.
• Maintain a national database, known as the Labour Market Information System (LMIS), which will act as a portal for matching the demand and supply of skilled workforce in the country.
Institutional Mechanism
The Mission at the Centre will consist of an apex Governing Council to be headed by Prime Minister, a Steering Committee to be headed by Minister of MSDE and a Mission Directorate to be chaired by Secretary, MSDE.
Mission Directorate will be supported by three other institutions, viz., National Skill Development Agency (NDSA), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Directorate General of Training (DGT).
At the State level, States will be encouraged to create State Skill Development Mission along the lines of National Skill Development Mission with a Steering Committee and a Mission Directorate at the State level.
Seven Sub-Missions
The Mission will have seven sub-missions under its purview. These are:
• Revitalizing Institutional training
• Infrastructure through undertaking sector specific skill training initiatives
• Ensure convergence of existing skill development programs
• Leverage existing public infrastructure for skilling
• Focus on training of trainers
• Facilitate overseas employment and
• Promote sustainable livelihoods
PradhanMantriKaushalVikasYojana
Prime Minister NarendraModi on 15 July 2015 launched the PradhanMantriKaushalVikasYojana in New Dehi. The programme aims to impart skill training to 24 lakh youth during 2015-16 with focus on first time entrants to the labour market and class 10 and class 12 drop outs.
Key characteristics of the PradhanMantriKaushalVikasYojana (PMKY)
• It will cover 24 lakh persons and skill training would be based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led standards.
• It will be implemented by the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) training partners.
• In addition, Central and State Government affiliated training providers would also be used for training purposes.
• Skill training would be on the basis of skill gap studies conducted by the NSDCfor the period 2013-17.
• Focus of the training would be on improved curricula, better pedagogy and better trained instructors.
• Training would include soft skills, personal grooming, behavioral change for cleanliness, good work ethics.
• A monetary reward will be given to trainees on assessment and certification by third party assessment bodies. The average monetary reward would be around 8000 rupees per trainee.
Funds Allocation
• Out of the total outlay of 1120 crore rupees to be spent on skill training of 14 lakh youths, 220 crore rupees has been allocated for recognition of prior learning.
• 67 crore rupees has been allocated for awareness building and mobilization efforts. Mobilization would be done through skill melas organized at the local level with participation of the State Governments, Municipal Bodies, Pachayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and community based organizations.
• 67 Crore rupees has been allocated for mentorship support and placement facilitation for trainees.
• 150 Crore rupees has been allocated for training of youth from the North-East region.
Monitoring of the program
• Sector Skill Councils and the State Governments would closely monitor skill training that will happen under the PMKVY.
• Skill Development Management System (SDMS) would be put in place to verify and record details of all training centers a certain quality of training locations and courses.
• Biometric system and video recording of the training process would be put in place where feasible.
• All persons undergoing training would be required to give feed back at the time of assessment and this would become the key element of the evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of the PMKVY scheme.
• A robust grievance redressal system would be put in place to address grievances relating to implementation of the scheme.
Skill Loan scheme
Under the scheme, loans ranging from 5000-1.5 lakhs rupees will be made available to 34 lakh youth to attend skill development programmes. It will be operational between 2015 and 2020.
Common Norms for all the Skill Development Schemes
The Union Cabinet on 2 July 2015 approved the introduction of Common Norms across all skill development schemes being implemented by different Ministries or Departments of Union Government.
Common Norms seek to rationalise the whole spectrum of skill development processes and systems including inputs, outputs, funding/cost norms, third party certification and assessment, monitoring/tracking mechanisms and empanelment of training providers.
Common Norms define the activities constituting Skill Development in the country, skill development courses and their alignment with the National Skills Qualification Framework, broad input standards for training programs and the outcomes expected from these programs.
The outcomes of skill training programs have been defined in terms of placement achieved in wage and self- employment, both for fresh trainees as well as existing workers who have undergone Recognition of Prior Learning.
As the common norms are aimed at being outcome focused, the cost norms and fund flow mechanism for skill development programs have also been linked to specific outcomes achieved. Cost norms include support for components like mobilization of candidates, trainers’ training, placement expenses, post-placement tracking/monitoring and infrastructure costs.
The common norms would be applicable to the skill development schemes being implemented through various Ministries. The State Governments are also expected to align their skill development schemes with these common norms so as to bring in uniformity and standardization.
Creation of Common Norms Committee
• It envisages the creation of a Common Norms Committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to bring about uniformity and standardization among the skill development schemes of the Central Government.
• The Committee will also consist of eight other representatives from relevant Central Ministries/Departments, State Governments, National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), with a provision for inviting experts and other significant stakeholders who may be necessary in the decision making process.
• It will be empowered to amend the common norms, schedules of the notification, training costs and funding norms for skill development programs.
Currently, over 70-odd Skill Development Programs (SDPs) are being implemented by the Union Government. Each program has its own norms for eligibility criteria, duration of training, cost of training, outcomes, monitoring and tracking mechanism etc.
This multiplicity of norms and parameters has created a diffusive effect of SDPs, which needs to be streamlined in order to achieve the final outcomes envisaged.