Skill India Mission- Feature, Objective, Govt. Scheme for UPSC

Skill India: The Skill India Mission, initiated by the government in 2015, serves as a comprehensive umbrella scheme encompassing numerous skilling schemes and programs. Its primary aim is to equip the nation’s youth with essential skill sets, thereby facilitating their employment in relevant sectors and enhancing productivity. Government schemes, including this one, hold significant relevance within the UPSC syllabus.

Skill India Objectives

The primary aim of the Skill India Mission is to offer job-oriented skills training to over 400 million young individuals in the country by 2023.

• The mission aims to foster opportunities and space for talent development among Indian youth.
• It targets the enhancement of sectors that have undergone skill development initiatives for many years.
• Additionally, the mission seeks to identify and develop new sectors for skill enhancement.

Other Objectives of Skill India:

• Bridging the disparity between industry-required skills and the skills individuals possess to boost employment opportunities.
• Alleviating poverty levels across the country.
• Enhancing the competitiveness of Indian businesses on a global scale.
• Ensuring that skill training provided is both relevant and of high quality.
• Equipping Indians to compete in the global job market.
• Expanding existing skill development programs to address contemporary challenges.
• Cultivating practical competencies rather than solely focusing on qualifications.
• Providing avenues for lifelong learning to foster skill development.
• Promoting stronger and more active involvement of social partners and fostering robust public-private partnerships in skill development.
• Mobilizing adequate investments to sustainably finance skill development initiatives.

Skill India Features

The Skill India Mission has lots of unique features that make it different from past skill development efforts:

• Helping young people become better equipped for jobs and starting their businesses.
• Providing training and support for traditional jobs like weaving, carpentry, nursing, and more.
• Also focusing on new areas like real estate, transportation, and tourism where skills are needed.
• Teaching skills that are recognized internationally, so young people can find work not just in India but also in other countries.
• Introducing a special certification called ‘Rural India Skill’ to highlight rural skill development.
• Creating programs tailored to different age groups to improve communication, life skills, and management.
• Using fun and creative methods like games and group discussions to teach these skills.

Sub-Schemes under Skill India

Skill India is a comprehensive mission that encompasses multiple schemes and programs, each with its specific focus areas. The sub-schemes are outlined as follows:

• National Skill Development Mission (NSDM)
  The NSDM was started to bring different sectors and states together to work on skills training activities. It aims to coordinate efforts and help make decisions to ensure high-quality training on a large scale.
• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
  PMKVY is a scheme to certify skills. It encourages young people to get training that’s relevant to industries and helps them develop skills. The scheme includes special parts like the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF), Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), Kaushal, and Rozgar Melas among others.
• Indian Skill Development Service
  The Indian Skill Development Services (ISDS) is a new government service created for training under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. It’s a Group ‘A’ service expected to boost government skilling initiatives by making them more effective and efficient. To join, candidates take the Indian Engineering Service Exam conducted by the UPSC. The ISDS aims to attract talented people to skill development and make skilling initiatives successful.
• National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015
  This policy aims to tackle the challenge of skilling many people quickly and with high quality. It provides a framework for all skilling activities in India, setting common standards and linking skill development with demand centres. It also outlines the institutional framework to achieve these goals.
• Skill Loan Scheme
  This scheme offers loans ranging from Rs.5000 to Rs. 1.5 lakhs for people attending skill development programs. It aims to remove financial barriers for those who want to improve or learn new skills.

Other Scheme

The Ministry is doing many other programs for skill development along with the big ones mentioned earlier. One important program is called the Pradhan Mantri Yuva Udyamita Vikas Abhiyan (PM-YUVA).

PM-YUVA:

• Centrally-sponsored scheme focusing on entrepreneurship education and training.
• Objectives:
  -Offer entrepreneurship education to all citizens through free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and eLearning systems.
  -Design assessment and certification mechanisms.
  -Prepare institutes (schools and colleges) to deliver global standard entrepreneurship educational programs.
  -Promote social entrepreneurship.
  -Develop an online platform linking entrepreneurs, investors, financial institutions, and business services like legal, accounting, HR, and technology.
  -Establish a national mentor network for budding entrepreneurs.
  -Build a network of incubators, credit agencies, business service providers, and accelerators.
  -Create a National Entrepreneurship Resource and Coordination Hub to support entrepreneurship development programs.
  -Cultivate a culture of dynamic entrepreneurship through branding and media.
  -Encourage entrepreneurship research and advocacy.
  -Conduct social entrepreneurship awareness programs for marginalized sections like SC/ST and minorities.

Apprenticeship Protsahan Yojana:

This scheme revamps the Apprenticeship Act, of 1961 to make the legal framework conducive to both the industry as well as young people.

Why does India need a skills development programme?

According to a report from 2014, only 2% of India’s workforce possesses formal skills. Moreover, the country faces a significant challenge of employability among its educated workforce. The absence of vocational or professional skills hinders the youth from adjusting to the evolving demands and technologies of the job market. High unemployment rates stem from both the inability to secure jobs and a deficiency in competence and training.

Skilling is important because of the following factors:

• Demographic dividend: While many major economies face ageing populations, India enjoys a favourable demographic dividend, presenting an opportunity to cater to the global manpower market. However, realizing this potential requires significant investment in skill development to enhance employability. India has only a limited demographic window of a few decades to capitalize on this advantage.
• The proportion of the workforce receiving skill training in India is a mere 10%, significantly lower than countries like Germany (75%), Japan (80%), and South Korea (96%).
• Sectoral mobilization: As agricultural productivity increases through mechanization, the demand for labour in the farming sector will decline. Consequently, there will be a transition of labour from agriculture to secondary and tertiary sectors.

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