The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY 2016-20), under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), has witnessed an exponential increase in generating employment opportunities with 5.25 lakh placements in barely around 18 months ending on May 17, 2018.
Infrastructure development, expanding training partner network and stringent monitoring processes with an over-riding focus on quality have succeeded in making the scheme more effective and constructive alongside significant increase in placements during the financial year 2017-18, said Rajesh Agrawal, Joint Secretary & CVO, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
With placements under PMKVY (2016-2020) being categorized into wage and self-employment, about 78 percent of the candidates have been placed in wage employment and 22 percent in self-employment/entrepreneurship, he said, adding that the top 10 performing sectors in these placements included: Apparel, Electronics and Hardware, Retail, Beauty and Wellness, Telecom, Logistics, Agriculture, IT-ITeS, Tourism and Hospitality and Construction.
He said that, in addressing gender inequality in the workforce, the scheme displayed significant gains including women constituting 55% of the total placements. In meeting industry demands, the placements have been skewed towards service sector with major placements in apparel, tailoring, computing and peripherals, retail sales, customer care and beauty and wellness job roles, he noted.
“PMKVY (2016-2020), while providing quality training to build a skilled and job-ready workforce catering to industry’s evolving demands, highlights success of Government’s vision in providing meaningful employment and livelihood opportunities for all. The placement trend also shows high demand in service sector and, in a vast country like India where unorganised sector is predominant, entrepreneurship can be a key enabler for employment generation,” he pointed out.
Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, National Skill Development Corporation, while describing the NSDC’s objective of creating and strengthening skill training institutions for enhancing employability of skilled youth, stated that it is encouraging quality training in industry-relevant job roles for better placement outcomes, and also enhancing self-employment capabilities of skilled youths by integrating digital literacy, soft skills and entrepreneurship modules with PMKVY.
Highlighting one of the innovative and impactful initiatives undertaken by NSDC to accelerate the pace of placements through +Job Fairs+ or Rozgar Melas which are being held across districts, he said that under this initiative, placement drives are conducted providing employers and candidates a common platform to interact and fulfil the placement directive of PMKVY 2016-2020.
The scheme has associated with over 7,000 employers across India through approximately 800 Rozgar Melas in the last 18 months, Kumar said, adding that these employers included Myntra, Pizza Hut, PVR Cinemas, Bata India, G4S Secure Solutions, Lemon Tree Hotels and Honda Motorcycle & Scooter Pvt. Ltd, among others.
The PMKVY (2016-20), launched in November 2016 with an outlay of Rs. 12,000 crores, is the biggest training and certification program of the Government of India with a vision to skill one crore youth by 2020. In barely 18 months of its launch, the scheme has certified over 18 lakh candidates under its various programs – Short Term Training, Recognition of Prior Learning and Special Projects.
The Short-Term Training (STT): program of PMKVY (2016-20), imparted through NSDC’s approved training partners, is aimed at benefitting youth who are either school/college dropouts or unemployed. Apart from skills training, the program comprises orientation in soft skills, entrepreneurship, financial and digital literacy. The program encompassing 200 -1,000 hours of skill training, is designed according to varied job roles. Till date, more than 13 lakh candidates have been certified under the Short-Term Training program.
The Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): is a certification program that gives due importance to learning as an outcome rather than learning as a process. It provides recognition to the informal learning or learning through work to get equal acceptance as the formal levels of education. Focusing on the workforce in the unorganised sectors, RPL is designed for those who already have a job or are self-employed and require up-skilling and certification for better prospects. The program includes 12 – 80 hours of training and, till date, over 5.31 lakh candidates have been certified under this program.
Special Projects: facilitates training in special areas and/or premises of government bodies, corporate or industry bodies, and training in special job roles, not defined under the available Qualification Packs (QPs)/National Occupational Standards (NOS).
NSDC is a one-of-its-kind, public-private-partnership with an objective to facilitate skill training in partnership with private training providers. Till date, NSDC has approved 350+ training providers and 39 Sector Skill Councils, with a geographical spread of 7,000+ training centres in 600+ districts across the country. NSDC has trained more than 1.4 crore people across sectors.
