Facebook joins Skill India Mission to empower youth

Social media giant Facebook on Tuesday entered into a strategic partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to empower youth and entrepreneurs with digital skills in India.

The partnership, signed in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, will enable Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) to incorporate Facebook's training on Digital Marketing Skills in its courses, besides providing trainees with access to local, domestic and international markets. 

The programme includes courses on Digital Marketing, Online Safety and Financial literacy in regional languages with Facebook imparting training to people nominated by the NSDC. This will up-skill job seekers and increase their prospects of employment.

"We are delighted to partner with the National Skill Development Corporation to help in upskilling the youth of the country and also empower local businesses by providing training and resources to build up a digital presence and grow their businesses beyond what the traditional offline economies offer," Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director, India, South and Central Asia - Facebook, said in a statement. 

"This skilled workforce and successful businesses are imperative for boosting employment and economic growth in the country," she added.

The collaboration will also enable trainees to have access to Facebook's Jobs tool to easily search for job openings. They can easily search for jobs in their Facebook app or visit www.facebook.com/jobs through their mobile phones while controlling the sharing of information with prospective employers. 

"The partnership with Facebook aims to leverage the digital opportunity which can assist in creating a market place for many businesses and service offerings for candidates getting trained under our skill ecosystem and; also act as an information kiosk for knowledge sharing," said Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. 

"With Facebook's expertise and support, we are taking a step towards utilising the immense potential of digital skills for the economic betterment of the country," he said.

Under the Skill India Mission, nearly one crore youth in the country are being annually skilled, reskilled and upskilled through various central government programmes. 

Facebook's previous training programmes on Digital Marketing Skills have upskilled more than 200,000 youth and entrepreneurs under the #BoostYourBusiness programme across 16 states in the country. 

Under the network giant's #SheMeansBusiness programme, another 30,000 women entrepreneurs are currently being trained, the company said. 

In 2017, Facebook launched Digital Training Hub which aims to train 500,000 youth and entrepreneurs by 2020.