New Delhi : National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), on the first day of its 8th Partners Meet, announced its expansion plans across 12 States in the country to support the largest human resource exercise of Skill India being undertaken, in order to make the nation a powerhouse for skilled workforce.
NSDC commenced its Partners Meet today in New Delhi which saw more than 700 stakeholders from the skills ecosystem across the country, including representatives from 40 Sector Skill Councils, 300+ training partners, industry partners amongst others participating at the event.
The two-day event has its focus on delivery and quality, especially now when a robust and large ecosystem is in place which also continues to expand rapidly. Since inception NSDC has so far skilled 91.91 lakh youth across different sectors in the country and is also responsible for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) which is a flagship program of the government of India. Under the scheme more than 19 lakh people were training in 2015-16.
The event also witnessed discussions focusing on quality of programs under Skill India with more robust monitoring and evaluation, changes in funding guidelines, leveraging training partners for optimizing the skills landscape, better industry-connect and increased State Government engagements. It also focused on building sustainable and profitable business models making it a viable solution for partners.
Addressing the stakeholders, Mr. Manish Kumar, MD &CEO, NSDC, shared the understanding of the challenges in the ecosystem and said that, only consistent collaboration and convergence can further strengthen skill development initiatives in the country. He further explained how labor capital leads to growth and how human capital can be enhanced with skill development which will then define a new growth trajectory path for the nation and its people.
Manish also said, “We have a highly supportive Ministry with the allocation of 32,000 crore fund for next 4 years from the Government and whose clear focus is on bringing about best practices and excellence in the training. What we need now is some cutting edge research, some emphasis on our success cases and learnings from our failures, to be able to scale up our efforts in skill development. With the promotion of new technology platforms, introduction of new generation SDMS, expanding our international partnerships, and enhancing our engagement with State Government, we see a huge potential of sustainable growth for our partners. We are expanding, we’re moving, and we look forward to a journey with you to make this country reach its natural potential”
The meet also assured the stakeholders that NSDC will be working closely with, its partners in developing new business models to generate a revenue stream which will see higher private sector investment in operational expenses of NSDC.
Highlighting the challenges and the roadmap ahead, Mr. Jayant Krishna, ED & COO, NSDC said, “NSDC has skilled more than 91 lakh youth cumulatively till date, 60% of whom are gainfully employed. We have already over-achieved our targets for 2016-17 for fee-based training and are now focusing extensively on Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) as we roll out its phase 2 this year which focuses more on quality of training. There has been an outflow of INR 2906 crores so far in creating this robust ecosystem recognized by industry standards. To drive quality we will now be incentivising the high performing training partners while the non-performing ones will have to be warned and asked to exit. Our focus is clearly on bringing scale, speed and quality in our endeavors to achieve the goal that we have set for ourselves.”
The meet will also witness Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge), Shri Rohit Nandan, Secretary, MSDE, Joint Secretaries and industry veterans come together and discuss means to further strengthen the skill ecosystem, as it progresses over the two days.
NSDC announced that it would open up offices in the following cities:
Guwahati (Assam), Patna (Bihar), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Chandigarh (Haryana & Punjab), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Bengaluru (Karnataka) , Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Hyderabad (Telangana) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh)
