Cabinet approves schemes to boost 'Skill India Mission'

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SME Times News Bureau | 12 Oct, 2017
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved two new World Bank-supported schemes of Rs 6,655 crore - Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) and Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE).

An official release said SANKALP is Rs 4,455 crore centrally sponsored scheme including Rs 3,300 crore loan support from World Bank while STRIVE is a Rs 2,200 crore central sector scheme, with half of the scheme outlay as World Bank loan assistance.

"SANKALP and STRIVE are outcome focused schemes marking shift in government's implementation strategy in vocational education and training from inputs to results," it said, adding the two schemes will address this need by setting up national bodies for accreditation and certification in both long and short term Vocational Education and Training (VET).

"Both the schemes are aimed at institutional reforms and improving quality and market relevance of skill development training programs in long and short term VET," the release said.

In the past, many government schemes such as Vocational Training Improvement Project have focussed on strengthening ITIs and over 1600 ITIs have already been modernized under the schemes.

STRIVE scheme shall incentivize ITIs to improve overall performance including apprenticeship by involving SMEs, business association and industry clusters.

The schemes aim to develop a robust mechanism for delivering quality skill development training by strengthening institutions such as State Skill Development Missions, National Skill Development Corporation, Sector Skill Councils, ITIs and National Skill Development Agency etc.

The schemes will support universalization of National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) including National Quality Assurance Framework (NQAF) across the skill development schemes of central and state governments thus ensuring standardization in skill delivery, content and training output.

The architecture shall help, for the first time in the history of vocational education in India, to converge the efforts of various central, state and private sector institutions thereby avoiding duplication of activities and bringing about uniformity in vocational training thus, creating better impact, it added.