Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) - An Overview

Anjani Chaand

Updated On: October 13, 2016 12:15 pm IST

Data reveals that only a very small proportion of India’s workforce has any formal skill training. This has a direct consequence in the form of
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) - An Overview

Data reveals that only a very small proportion of India’s workforce has any formal skill training. This has a direct consequence in the form of shortage of skilled people in the strategic sector and is stalled with low productivity levels due to the poor quality of the workforce. The slow pace of economic growth may also be endorsed to the poor quality of the workforce.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is the remarkable scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship or the MSDE, Government of India. The scheme wishes for Skill Development Initiative schemes of the Government of India for recognition and calibration of skills. This scheme is aimed at encouraging talent towards employable skills and to surge working efficiency of credible and existing daily breadwinners, by giving monetary awards and rewards and by providing quality training.

The main objective of this Skill Certification Scheme is to empower a large number of Indian youth to be trained on industry-relevant skills which will help them become more efficient and confident in securing a better livelihood. The Indian population accounts for the largest proportion of youths that is also the largest segment of the primary productive human resources. The social, as well as economic development, of the youth, contributes directly to the development process. It is, therefore, necessary to make youth the prime focus of developmental endeavours of society. Individuals with prior learning experience or skills drive may also be assessed and certified under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). It is important to note that under this Scheme, the training and assessment fees are fully borne by the Government.

A large section of the country’s youth is looking for economic and livelihood opportunities. The unemployment, both direct and disguised, has haunted India since Independence. Nearly ten million people are entering into India's workforce year after year; the accountability of meeting the aspiration of this workforce and the country's aim to become the world's human resource capital is very huge.

About 60% of the country’s population still lives in villages and depend upon agriculture which results in pseudo or seasonal unemployment. The marginal productivity of the agricultural labour is zero if not negative. There are huge opportunities in agro-based industries and food processing industries where skill development may further enhance the scope of earning their livelihood at the same place thereby lessening the chances of migration. Similarly, the urban/semi-urban youths can acquire the basic skills and is qualified to be suitable for employment in the respective industries.

Objectives of the Scheme:

To encourage skill development for youth by providing monetary rewards for successful completion of approved training programs. Specifically, the scheme aims at:

  • Encouraging standardization in the certification process and initiating a process of creating a registry of skills
  • Enabling and mobilizing a large number of Indian youth to take up skill training and further employable to earn their livelihood
  • Increasing productivity of the existing workforce and aligning the training and certification to the needs of the country
  • Providing monetary awards for Skill Certification to boost employability and productivity of youth by incentivizing them for skill training
  • Rewarding candidates undergoing skill training by authorized institutions at an average monetary reward of Rs. 8,000 per candidate
  • Benefitting 24 lakh youth at an approximate total cost of Rs. 1,500 crores

Benefits of the Scheme:

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is a programme designed as an outcome-based skill training scheme of the new Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE). This skill certification and reward scheme wishes to mobilize a large number of Indian youth to take up skill training and become employable.

Under the scheme, a monetary reward would be provided to trainees who are successfully trained, assessed and certified in skill courses run by affiliated training providers. This will not only boost the productivity of the country’s workforce but will also bring about a paradigm shift from the current input-based to an outcome-based skill training in the country. Institutional arrangements comprising of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Sector Skill Councils or the SSCs, various assessing agencies and training partners are already in place for the implementation of the scheme.

Training will be carried out against standards (National Occupational Standards - NOS and Qualification Packs - QPs for specific job roles) that are formulated by industry-driven bodies, namely the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs). The training is based on demand-driven targets which are based on the assessment of skill demand and the ‘Skill Gap Studies’. The targets are also aligned to national flagship programmes like ‘Swachh Bharat’, ‘Make in India’, ‘National Solar Mission’, 'Digital India' and so on.

National skill development mission is desirous to skill 400 million people by 2022. This scheme also aims to skill people through ITIs and polytechnics and in partnership with private sector. Till now the progress was not enough because of subdued response from the private sector.

PMKVY will follow complete transparent funding of skill training without any intermediaries with monetary rewards directly transferred to the trainee’s bank account. Aadhaar number will be used for unique identification of each candidate. A number of awareness building & mobilization activities would be carried out with the involvement of local, state and district governments as well as the involvement of Members of Parliament or the MPs in the activities to ensure greater outreach and ownership. ‘Camp-based’ approaches like ‘Kaushal Melas’ will be designed to publicise more relevant information.

Every patron under the PMKVY Scheme has a critical role in mustering, appealing, counselling, training, assessment and reward distribution under the scheme. The training provided to each trainee will position them as employment ready for industry-recognized roles. The assessment by an independent third-party assessment agency will provide for standardization of skills and make them industry-ready. NSDC, as the implementing agency of the PMKVY Scheme, is expected to ensure that the spirit and essence of the PMKVY Scheme is maintained at all times. In view of this, this document lays down the detailed Process Manual for stakeholders in the PMKVY Scheme to help in achieving the Scheme outcomes. The Process Manual covers the following areas: affiliation, target allocation, mobilization, training, assessments, marketing promotion, awareness campaign, monetary reward disbursement and with other stakeholders in the PMKVY Scheme.

Conclusion:

Article 21 of the Indian constitution guarantees the "right to life", which ultimately lead to the right to livelihood. The PMKVY seeks to harness the strength of the youth through making gainful employment supported by best of the acquired skills. Making each one skilled enough to live with dignity and without any deprivation is the key idea of PMKVY. The skill development mission is not only to make someone skilled in a particular area but to make sure she/he gets a good job. National Skill Development Mission combines youth employability aspirations with our national dream of becoming the human resource capital of the world. The mission aims to provide employment seeking skills to 400 million youth by 2020. It thus shares the major responsibility of skilling 400 million out of the 700 million, that will explore the job market by 2020. The introduction of several schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, National policy for skill development and entrepreneurship etc. need to be effectively spread across the length and breadth of the country with the crucial involvement of various stakeholders.

Author - Dr. Joydeep Goswami

[The Author is a renowned professor of Economics at JIMS in Delhi]

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