On the occasion of completion of two years of inclusive growth and development under the present Government, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (independent charge) and Parliamentary Affairs, recently stated that more than 1.04 crore youth have been trained under the Skill India Mission in the year 2015 to 2016 which is 36.8 per cent higher than the previous year’s recorded data. In the current arrangement, 60 per cent of the trainings are directly under MSDE while 40 per cent are across other central ministries.
He said that Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), which was launched on July 15, 2015 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alone has witnessed more than 20 lakh people, of which 40 per cent are women candidates, being trained in their choice of skill. There have been MoUs with Central Ministries (including Railways, Defence, Health, Telecom, Power, Coal) to leverage existing infrastructure and opportunities for skill development across sectors.
Till date 4,82,079 entrepreneur training’s have been done by National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development. 83 per cent of these have been trained through digitised entrepreneurship orientation programmes.
“Today we have more than 1500 courses that have been aligned to National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF). We have identified 52 Skill Centres in Railway premises so far, of which 12 are already operational. We will work to deliver Entrepreneurship, Education and training in 2200 colleges, 300 schools, 500 government ITIs and 50 vocational training centres. Aspiring entrepreneurs will be connected to mentors and credit markets,” he said.
The Ministry has also created a new model for skilling of retiring defence personnel to meet the trainers demand in the ecosystem and has successfully completed a pilot with 56 IAF officers and provided them with training and placement letters.
The Minister stated that the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is aiming extensive modernisation of the existing ITI ecosystem and establishment of new ITIs and Multi Skill Training Institutes (MSTIs), so that more and more people get skills of recognised standards which will help them become more employable for the industries. The MSTIs will be set up in the unserved areas/blocks to improve the outreach of the Skill India initiative. He also said that his Ministry is working towards the establishment of one Model Skill Center in each district of the country, which would be operational in more than 500 districts by March 2017. These will be high quality centers which will help make skill development aspirational and accessible.
In private skill ecosystem catalysed by National Skill Development Corporation, 11 new Sector Skill Councils have been added making it to 40 sectors now and an additional 151 training partners have joined making the total to 267 partners.