To facilitate international workforce mobility, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) launched India International Skill Centre (IISC) Network on 11th February, 2020. The IISC network is a nodal platform to facilitate international workforce mobility opportunities for Indians. It is a fee based, market driven model, determined by global workforce supply and demand dynamics. It comprises of Member Organizations involved in activities related to overseas workforce mobility like incremental skill training on international standards or testing/assessment of skills for overseas employment, operating through several fixed centres called as IISCs. Through the IISC Network, Member Organizations are supported to work across various country clusters: Gulf cooperation council (GCC); Japan, Russia, South East Asia; North America; Australia, New Zealand; and Europe. NSDC provides access to the following benefits to the members of the IISC Network:

• Knowledge and Research to facilitate International Workforce Mobility.
• Government-to-Government/Business-to-Business facilitation.
• International Skill Standard Benchmarking and Harmonization
• Advocacy and Branding
• International Workforce Facilitation - Employer Connect.
• Funding support - Candidate and business loans.
• International Assessment Centres.
• Technological Support through IT platform - Data Management and Monitoring system.

In India, 95 organizations are part of the network operating through 537 IISCs across more than240 districtsas on January, 2021. The Government has taken several initiatives to provide employment opportunity to the youth abroad by signing Memorandum of Understanding /Memorandum of Cooperation with various countries such as Germany, Japan, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Belarus, United Kingdom and France.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Raj Kumar Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

****

BN/MR