National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship – 2015

15^th July 2015 :- Marking the first – ever World Youth Skills Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally launched four initiatives – National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship – 2015, National Skill Development Mission (NSDM), Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and Skill Loan Scheme – aimed at achieving the vision of Skill India on July 15^th, 2015 in New Delhi.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu at the launch of the National Skill Development Mission on July 15, 2015 in New Delhi, India. On the occasion of the first ever World Youth Skills Day,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally launched the National Skill Development Mission and unveiled the new National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015.

Under the new National Policy for Skill Development, the government has set a target of skilling 40.2 crore people by 2022.

The four initiatives are aimed at making India as a hub of world’s human resource capital. These initiatives are:-

→ National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship – 2015

It is the first such policy on entrepreneurship since independence and intended to replace the National Policy on Skill Development 2009.

It is the second such policy on skill development since independence and intended to replace the National Policy on Skill Development 2009 by adding entrepreneurship to the policy framework.

Highlights of the Policy:-

Objectives of the policy is to make quality vocational training inspirational for both youth and employers, focus on an outcome based approach towards quality skilling, increase the capacity and quality infrastructure, establish on IT base duality infrastructure for aggregating demand and supply of skilled workforce and promote increased participation of women in the workforce among others. Also to promote entrepreneurship culture and make it inspirational, enhance support for potential entrepreneurs through mentorship and networks and integrate entrepreneurship education in the formal education system among others.

By designing suitable incentive schemes, existing infrastructure both in terms of building and potential teachers would be optimally leveraged for skill training. They include utilisation of over 1.55 million schools, 25000 colleges, 3200 polytechnics and 83 youth hostels, around 1.5 lakh post offices and over 1 lakh kiosks across the country.

Apprenticeship will further be incentivised in MSME sector through appropriate schemes for sharing of stipend etc. Government will target a tenfold increase in apprenticeship opportunities in the next five years. Further services sector will also be bought under the ambit of apprenticeship.

Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), which has been set up to coordinate skill development efforts in the country will within three months, notify common norms for rationalization of central Government Schemes on Skill Development.

A national Labour Market Information System (LMIS) will be created to generate key analysis and reports which will determine policy interventions by different Government stakeholders and the industry at large.

Skilling efforts will be completely aligned with the requirements of 25 key identified sectors of Make in India.

Institutional arrangements through joint working groups, secretariats, etc will be established for regular exchange of knowledge, experiences, research findings, teaching and learning materials, and innovations in skill development.

Foreign Governments, corporate and agencies will also be encouraged to set up skill centres and universities as well as participate in content creation, design of curricula and delivery of training.

The use of technology will be leveraged to scale up training facilities, enable access to remote areas and increase cost effectiveness of delivery of vocational training.

Special mechanisms in the delivery of training such as mobile training units, flexible afternoon batches, training based on the local needs of the area, will be introduced to ensure participation and mobilization of women.

In order to achieve the objectives enshrined in the policy the Prime Minister also launched the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) aimed at implementing and coordinating all skilling efforts.

National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) will be utilized for implementation of skilling efforts under the policy. To attract funds from industry, companies will be encouraged to spend at least 25% of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds on skill development initiatives directly or through NSDF.

→ National Skill Development Mission (NSDM):-

The mission is intended to operationalise the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015. It has seven sub missions under it that are monitored by a Governing Council under the chairmanship of Prime Minister.

→ Pradhan Mantri  Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

It is a demand – driven, reward – based skill training scheme. Under the scheme, besides assessing and certifying 10 lakh youth for the skills they already possess, around 24 lakh youth will be skilled over the next one year.

Key characteristics of  the PMKVY

1.      It will cover 24 lakh persons and skill training would be based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led standards.

2.      It will be implemented by the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) training partners.

3.      Skill training would be provided on the basis of skill gap studies conducted by the NSDC for the period 2013 – 17.

4.      A monetary reward will be given to trainees on assessment and certification by third party assessment bodies. The average monetary would be around 8000 rupees per trainee.

→ Skill Loan Scheme

Under the scheme, loan ranging from Rs. 5000 – Rs. 1,50,000 will be made available to 34 lakh youth to attend skill development programmes. It will be operational between 2015 and 2020.