Govt. Moves To Standardise Skill Programmes

About 2.5 crore individuals have been trained under various skill programmes of the government.

Out of this, more than 50 lakh have been trained under the ministry’s flagship scheme – Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). The scheme has been criticised in the past for its poor track record in placing candidates. The PMKVY dashboard, a centrally managed, live indicator of statistics on the scheme says that 8,48,871 people have been placed so far. The revamped PMKVY, also known as PMKVY-2 started on October 2, 2016 with an outlay of INR 12,000 crores to impart skilling to one crore people over four years (2016-20). According to the PMKVY dashboard, a little over 30 lakh people have been trained, which leaves a huge target to be completed in the next two years.

Dharmendra Pradhan, minister for skill development & entrepreneurship and petroleum & natural gas said at a press conference that the government has been working actively on building more PMKKs (Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras) and so far more than 8,464 such centres are operational.

“By the end of 2018, country’s 700 districts will have a PMKK each, with the help of industry and our training partner ecosystem. We are also looking at creating progression pathways for the youth who are in our skill ecosystem by ensuring that they are not only skilled; but are hand-held and are also then further linked to entrepreneurship opportunities through Government of India’s MUDRA Yojana,” said Pradhan.

Another achievement that the minister enumerated was on 32% increase in ITI count and 54% increase in seating capacity since 2014. One of the aims of the ministry is to have an ITI in every block and transform central institutions into National Skill Trainers’ Institute to focus on capacity-building of trainers. Under its National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), more than 3.95 lakh apprentices have been trained and more than 48,000 companies have registered themselves.

Recognising the involvement of multiple stakeholders in skill development, spanning central ministries and state governments, the ministry has been working to standardise various skill programmes with respect to intended outcomes. It has developed common norms on skill outcomes expected of similar training programmes, irrespective of who is running it. All skill programmes will now be aligned to a common framework approved by the government and the industry.

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