Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship Phase-2

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Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship Phase-2: Relevance

Recently, Ministry of Education has launched the phase-II of Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) to enhance skill development at the grassroot levels.

MGNF fellowship Phase 2: It was launched on 25th October with 661 MGNFs who will be deployed across all districts of the country.
Unlike Phase-I that was a pilot programme, MGNF phase 2 has been rolled out across India.
Under, MGNF fellowship 2021 Phase 2, 8 more IIMs have been on boarded taking the total to 9 IIMs (IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM-Jammu, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow, IIM Nagpur, IIM Ranchi, IIM-Udaipur and IIM Visakhapatnam).

MGNF is a two-year long fellowship conceived to create opportunity for young, dynamic individuals to contribute to enhancing skill development at the grassroots.
The two-year fellowship seeks to combine classroom sessions by academic partner such as IIMs with an intensive field immersion at the district level.
- The objective is to create credible plans and identify barriers in raising employment, economic output, and promote livelihoods in rural areas.
The MGNF program under SANKALP was designed to provide a cadre of professionals at District level who not only know about governance and public policy in general but vocational education too.
MGNF is an opportunity for young women and men in the age group of 21-30 years who already possess some level of academic or professional expertise for providing catalytic support to the district administration to improve the skill development program delivery.

To operationalise the mission and strengthen the skill training delivery mechanism in the country, Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP), a World Bank loan assisted program, was launched by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) in January 2018.

SANKALP engages with District Skill Committees (DSCs) to effectively reduce the mismatch between the supply and demand of skilled manpower in the country, thereby creating decent opportunities for the youth to work and earn.