The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) in collaboration with Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has taken a number of initiatives towards integrating skills and education. Under the scheme of Vocationalisation of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, vocational education is provided to a large number of students in selected schools. Under this initiative, 9623 schools have been sanctioned across the country for integrating vocational education in general education from secondary class onwards.
MSDE through National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is supporting University Grant Commission for three schemes namely Community College, Bachelor of Vocational course (BVOC) & Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Kaushal Kendras which are being introduced in different colleges and universities. Currently there are 531 colleges/universities under these schemes (275 BVOC colleges, 188 Community Colleges and 68 DDU Kaushal Kendra Colleges). Out of which, there is only one institution named Central University of Rajasthan, running DDU Kaushal Kendra. Further, Academic Equivalence with 10th and 12th classes has been provided to ITI Students through National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) by means of credit transfer. NSDC has collaborated with MHRD for the following:
- Restructuring of BVOC by rolling out embedded apprenticeship under National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS). BVOC has multiple exits at Certificate, Diploma, Advance Diploma and Degree level. Through this, the employability of the general graduates is enhanced considerably as the student can have professional experience on the shop-floor, along with their graduation.
- Graduate students passing out in the academic year 2018-2019 would be directly channelled into industry apprenticeship for a period of 6 months to one year depending on the sector chosen. Such apprenticeship would be assessed as per the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and a certificate at the appropriate NSQF level would be given to the successful students, apart from a monthly stipend depending on the location.
Under Skill India Mission, the Government is implementing various schemes for imparting employable skills to the youth through short term and long term training. MSDE is implementing a flagship scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana’ (PMKVY) to provide short term training to the youth across the country. As on 12.06.2019, a total of 52.12 lakh candidates have been trained under PMKVY. In addition, Ministry has also taken initiative to set up Model Skill Centres called Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs) in districts across the country. Long term training is provided through Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). There are 14494 ITIs with a seating capacity of 33.98 lakh. This information was given in a written reply by the Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri. R. K. Singh in the Lok Sabha today.
