National Skill Development Mission

National Skill Development Mission was introduced by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to empower the younger generation. The mission was mainly developed to ensure employment opportunities by providing training in skill development and enable them to become self-employed entrepreneurs. Under this Mission, there are various sub-mission proposed initially to achieve the vision of skilled India. In this article, we look at the National Skill Development Mission in detail.

Objectives of the National Skill Development Mission

• To create an end to end implementation framework for skill development, which provides opportunities for self-employment.
• To support weaker sections of society through focused outreach programmes and targeted skill development activities.
• To establish standards for skill training throughout the country by creating a quality assurance framework for trainers.
• To build capacity for skill development in unorganised sectors such as the construction sector as there are very few opportunities are provided for skill training.
• To develop a network for quality trainers in skill development by establishing high-quality teacher training institutions.
• To leverage existing public infrastructure and industry facilities for scaling up skill training and capacity building efforts.
• To propagate the value of skilling among youth, by creating social awareness on the value of skill training.

Mission Strategy

National Skill Development Mission will consist of 7 submissions, and each submission will work as a building block for obtaining the overall objectives of the Mission. The key focus areas of the submission will include :

• addressing the skilling needs through revamping of existing institutional training framework and establishing new institutions
• undertaking specific skill training initiatives
• Ensuring the convergence of existing skill development programmes
• leveraging the existing public infrastructure for skilling
• Focusing on the training of trainers
• facilitating overseas employment and
• Promoting sustainable livelihoods.

Sub-Missions

The sub-missions involved under the national skill development mission are explained in detail below:

• Institutional Training
• Infrastructure
• Convergence
• Trainers
• Overseas Employment
• Sustainable Livelihoods

Institutional Training

Objectives

• To provide focused training on obtaining high placement rates.
• To modernize and upgrade the existing training institutions, like ITIs, ATIs etc. under DDG(Training) to make them more responsive to industry demand.
• To enhance training by providing opportunities to learn as well as earn through apprenticeships.
• To change perceptions about vocational training by building opportunities for long-term career progression.

Activities involved under Institutional Training

• The number of Skill Institutes would be established in a public-private partnership (PPP) type.
• These institutions will collaborate with industry representatives and professional training providers to ensure the training programmes are high-quality standards.
• Skill Institute will be located within industrial clusters to promote close linkages with industry and facilitate placement.
• Training on both technical and soft skills such as IT skills, English language and communication skills will be performed.
• The training institutes will be encouraged to link student enrolment with Aadhaar cards to ensure the online tracking of students during and after training.
• Every Skill development Institute will be equipped with a Career Service/ Career Placement Cell, which will offer trainees with post-placement support.
• Every alumnus will be provided with access to the career service, which will provide mentorship advice, counselling to trainees. Also, the employers could use the career placement cell for advertising jobs and recruiting new candidates.
• Additionally, National Universities for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship will be created for skill development and training of trainers.

Infrastructure

Objectives

• To ensure high-quality skill development in infrastructure, including the construction sector, to increase the productivity of workers in this sector.
• To match the requirement of additional workers to work in the construction sector over the upcoming years.
• To provide opportunities to the existing workers in this sector to have long-term sustainable livelihoods through up-skilling.

Activities involved under Infrastructure

• Training programmes on the entrepreneurship and self-employment will be operated under this submission.
• Training curriculum will be developed in collaboration with industry experts and employers.
• Providing trainees opportunities for on-site and off-site training through tie-ups with relevant industry partners.

Convergence

Objectives

To ensure coordination and convergence of skill development efforts across multiple stakeholders in the country.

Convergence

• The standard norms for rationalization of Skill Development schemes at the Central and State level will be created.
• To provide training linked to local needs, the states will be promoted to open Kaushal Vardhan kendras (KVKs).
• National Skills Portal would be set up by the National Skill Development Corporation to provide information to trainees on the training and career opportunities available to them.

Trainers

Objectives

• To enhance the quality of training at skill development institutions throughout the country.
• To fulfil the trainer’s training requirement in each sector of skill development.
• To ensure the availability of trainers in the skills institute.
• To provide trainers with long-term career progression.

Activities involved under Trainers

• Special courses for training the master trainers is executed. This will serve two main purposes:
  • •  To confirm that there is a constant supply of well-trained trainers.
    • To provide trainees with the opportunity to upgrade their skills and become trainers or master trainers.
• In addition to training, trainers will be trained in communication skills, IT skills, interpersonal skills, counselling and mentorship skills.
• A national certification system for trainers will be developed through the national skill universities to promote high-quality trainers at multiple levels of competency.

Overseas Employment

Objectives

• To ensure that youth are trained at the highest global standards, to enable them to access self-employment opportunities.
• To ensure global mobility of skilled workers in the country.

Activities involved under Overseas Employment

• Partnership with leading vocational training institution in other countries to exchange programme for Master Trainers.
• The programmes for teachers, administrators, specialist and students will be established.
• The institutional mechanism for exchange of knowledge, experience, research findings, training standards, qualifications, teaching and learning materials and innovations in other areas.

Sustainable Livelihoods

Objectives

• To empower trainees by assisting them in skill training with a way to reach long-term sustainable livelihoods.

Activities involved under Sustainable Livelihoods

• Trainees will be provided with counselling services, by experts to facilitate the career.
• Promoting entrepreneurial culture amongst youth through integrating entrepreneurship education as a part of the formal education system.

Leveraging Public infrastructure

Objectives

• To enhance the usage of existing public infrastructure to scale up skill development efforts throughout India.

Activities involved under Leveraging Public infrastructure

• The existing public infrastructure will be conducted to identify existing resources and examine the extent to which they are utilized.
• A framework for utilizing the existing infrastructure will be developed. Further, tie-ups with Ministry of Defence for re-employment of ex-servicemen as trainers in technical and service-based training courses will be finalized.
• Also, bridge courses will be provided to align them with general training requirements.

Financing

The implementation of skilling activities under the National Skill Development Mission will be as per the provisions of various schemes under their respective officer. The managerial expenses of the Mission will be borne by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.