The huge mismatch between education,
employability and employment has been staring in the face of the country since
the last 40 years now.
The country had more than 70 odd
programs on skill development being run across 29 states through 21 different
ministries. Each one had their own norms and outcomes and tracking mechanism.
The multiplicity of these initiatives had diffused the impact that Skill
Development could have had for the youth of India. There was no rationalisation
of the process and system and the training were never outcome focused. There
was limited emphasis on mapping of the skilled workforce that was required
across sectors.
There have been no focused efforts
towards streamlining entities working in the skill ecosystem. The country stood
on the global map with the maximum number of people in the employable age-group
(population between 15-60 years); waiting for some synergies to happen.
The first and foremost step that the
current incumbent government took in shaping the skills landscape was the
creation of a separate Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship
which in the last one year has invested heavily, on restructuring and
re-energising the skill ecosystem in the country. It has made some significant
efforts in ensuring coordination and convergence across all initiatives and
schemes that were active in the skill ecosystem.
The year 2014 saw the launch of Skill
India, lead by the 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. In
just 15 months MSDE has made great strides in streamlining and reinvigorating
India’s skilling ecosystem. MSDE’s journey and its key achievements to date are
detailed below.
I.
The birth of India’s first Ministry of
Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
India’s challenge is immense. 54% of
India’s population is below 25 years of age and over 62% of the population is
the working-age group. Over 109 million incremental human resources will be
required in India alone, across 24 key sectors by the year 2022. Yet, only
4.69% of the Indian population has undergone formal skills training. The lack
of coordinated action dedicated to addressing the above challenges, has left
India far behind, with India’s demographic dividend on the verge of
transforming into a demographic nightmare.
The newly elected government created India’s
first Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in July 2014 under the
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, to rapidly address the above challenges.
This Department became the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
(MSDE) in November 2014 with Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy inducted as Minister.
MSDE’s was given the mandate of leading India’s skill development and entrepreneurship
agenda, at speed and scale, while ensuring quality outcomes. Though this step
was taken 68 years too late, MSDE has made excellent progress in just 15months.
II.
Key Challenges: Cementing a Fractured
Ecosystem
In November 2014, India’s skilling
ecosystem was highly fragmented.21 Central government Ministries and
departments were implementing over 50 skill training programmes, operating in
silos. Conflicting norms between schemes, poor monitoring mechanisms, varying
assessment and certification systems and the absence of a coherent vision of
success, limited the effectiveness of these initiatives. Further, the
government vocational training ecosystem, led by the Directorate of Training (DGT)
under the Ministry of Labour was entirely divorced from the private skill
training ecosystem system created by the National Skill Development Corporation
(NSDC). Entrepreneurship and vocational training were separated from each
other. Therefore, MSDE, as the lead Ministry for skill training and
entrepreneurship and was tasked with coordinating, steering and ensuring
coherence within this fractured ecosystem.
MSDE’s first step was to connect the
different elements of the ecosystem together. Two verticals from DGT (Training
and Apprenticeship), were transferred to MSDE in April 2015. Further, two major
Entrepreneurship Development Institutes, were also shifted under MSDE, from the
Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises.
With the bulk of Skill training and
Entrepreneurship efforts now firmly under its ambit, MSDE made three crucial
policy interventions, focussed on articulating an overarching vision for skill
development in India, and ensure coordination, coherence and consistency of all
skill training efforts across the country.
III.
Policy Interventions: 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: The
Policy articulates an overarching framework for skilling at scale and speed
while ensuring high quality outcomes.
·
India’s first National Skill Development
Mission launched in July 2015 to coordinate and Scale up Skilling Efforts. The
Mission seeks to converge, coordinate, implement and
monitor skilling activities on a pan-India basis.
·
Common
Norms for skill development schemes across India notified to ensure standardisation:
In
November 2014, there were 52 programs running across different Ministries, each
of which had their own training norms and standards. To ensure standardisation
and consistency in the structure of skill training initiatives across India,
Common Norms forall skill development programmes across Central Ministries/Departments
were notified on 15 July 2015, after extensive Inter-Ministerial Consultations
·
Operationalisation
of National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) in progress: The NSQF
was created to ensure consistency in measuring
the outcomes of skill training. Over 1461qualifications from both the
NSDC and ITI ecosystems have been already been aligned to NSQF. By December 2016, all government skill training
programmes will be NSQF aligned.
These
three initiatives were formally launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 15
July 2015, on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day. India now has a robust
policy framework for skilling and entrepreneurship, for the very first time.
MSDE’s
took its mandate as the nodal agency for skill training, a step forward by
translating its policy framework into a coherent programme of action, to
deliver results on the ground. These are detailed below.
IV.
Programme Interventions: Implementing a
Coherent Programme of Action to catalyse Skilling Across India:
MSDE’s
programme interventions are guided by the principles of Speed, Scale and
Quality – which have been addressed simultaneously in each of the
initiatives mentioned below.
·
MSDE’s
Flagship Scheme Pradhan Mantri Kaushal VikasYojana (PMKVY) launched, Over 18
lakh youth enrolled to date: PMKVY, an outcome-focused, rewards
based scheme seeks to provide fresh training to 14 lakh youth and train 10 lakh
through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). More than 18 lakhyouth have been enrolled
in fresh training programmes, of which over 10 lakh have completed training.
·
Industrial
Training Institutes (ITI) Ecosystem Revitalised: Some of the key
achievements include:
o
1,141
new ITIs with 1.73 lakh seats have been added in past one year.
o
15,000
instructors have been trained by Central Institutes of Directorate General of
Training (DGT).
o
Distance
learning infrastructure created and over 18000 trainers trained.
o
Capacity
Building training of Government ITI Principals conducted at various
o
Monitoring
Mechanisms Strengthened through Web-based MIS Portal hosted at www.ncvtmis.gov.in - a one-stop
information source for all Government as well as Private Industrial Training
Institutes (ITIs)..
·
Private Skill Training Ecosystem Catalysed through National
Skill Development Corporation: NSDC partners have
skilled 27.80 lakh people and placed around 12 lakh people through its
ecosystem in the last one year. NSDC funded partners have trained over 65.46
lakh students, till date.
·
Entrepreneurship
Initiatives Scaled up: National Institute for Entrepreneurship
and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) has already covered 2,00,885 trainees.
·
Making
Skills Aspirational through Participation in World Skills Competitions: India
participated inThe World Skills Competition (held in in Sao Paulo,
Brazil in August 2015) - the Olympics of Skills and came out with flying
colours, winning 8 medallions of excellence in Beauty Therapy, Welding, Graphic
Design Technology, Prototype Modelling, Jewellery Design, Plastic Die
Engineering. .
·
Apprenticeship
Training scaled up through the modification of the Apprenticeship Act in
December 2014. As far back as 1975, former Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi had made changing the legal regime for apprenticeship a public policy
priority in her 20-point programme for governance. But for 40 years, the law
that required every employer to have apprentices and prescribes stiff penalties
including jail terms for those who violate its tenets, had remained unchanged.
·
Comprehensive
amendments to Apprentices Act 1961 made with effect from 22nd
December 2014. Act has been made more responsive to industry and youth. Employers
can now engage up to 10% of its total workforce as apprentices. The number of apprentices
in the country has increased from 2.70 lakh to 3.10 lakh in the past one year.
V.
Achieving
Scale and Quality: An Agenda for the Way Forward
·
Scaling
Up: Some of the proposed initiatives to scale up existing skill training
initiatives include:
o
7000
new it is to be opened in the next one year
o
Two
new Apprentice Training Institutes for Women to be set up in Haryana and
Uttarakhand.
o
27
new Advanced Training Institutes (ATI) under PPP mode set up for Training of
Trainers throughout the country.
o
1500
Multi Skill Training Institutes (MSTIs) to be established with active
participation of Industries/Private partners
o
Model
Skill Centres to be established in every district of India, to provide access
to high quality, aspirational skill training opportunities for short-term
courses across the country.
o
Two
new World Bank Projects have been approved to scale up skill development in the
country. This includes the Skills Strengthening For Industrial Value
Enhancement (STRIVE) project to revitalize the ITI ecosystem and Skill
Training for Employability leveraging Public Private Partnership (STEPPP),
which will be implemented in mission mode through World Bank support to achieve
the objectives laid down in the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM).
·
Enhancing
Quality and Ensuring Consistency
o
A
National Board for Skills Assessment and Certification will be
established to ensure quality and consistency of skill training qualifications.
The Board will combine industry-led SSC certification processes and government
authorized NCVT certification and will act as a one stop shop for examinations,
assessments and awarding national level certificates in compliance with NSQF,
for skill development courses in the country.
In its first
year, MSDE has dynamically consolidated the skill ecosystem and made important
strides towards revitalizing India’s skill training ecosystem.
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AD/ASB