NSDC holds the 8th Partners meet with 700 participants

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) held the 8th Partners meet on 7th November 2016 in Delhi. One of the key announcements shared in this meet is to expand their operations across 12 States in the country. They aim to support the largest human resource base of Skill India in order to make the nation a powerhouse for skilled workforce. NSDC announced that it would open up offices in the following cities: Guwahati, Patna, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Ranchi, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad and Lucknow. The meet was attended by nearly 70 stakeholders, 40 sector skill councils and more than 300 training partners participating in the event.

The two-day event has its focus on delivery and quality, especially now when a robust and large ecosystem is in place which also continues to expand rapidly. NSDC is responsible for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) which is a flagship program of the government of India where more than 19 lakh people were trained in 2015-16.

NSDC has successfully trained 91.91 lakh across different sectors of the country.

NSDC has successfully achieved 102% against its target for 2016-17 for all the fee based training programs.

Strong emphasis on the quality of skill training and creating multiple employment opportunities for the youth of the country.

The event also witnessed discussions focusing on quality of programs under Skill India with more emphasis on monitoring and evaluation.

Addressing the stakeholders, Mr. Manish Kumar, MD &CEO, NSDC, shared his views on the underlying challenges in the ecosystem and said that, only consistent collaboration and convergence can further strengthen skill development initiatives in the country.

Manish also said, “We have a highly supportive Ministry with allocation of 32,000 crore fund for next 4 years from the Government and whose clear focus is on bringing about best practices and excellence in the trainings. What we need now is some cutting edge research, some emphasis on our success cases and learnings from our failures, to be able to scale up our efforts in skill development. With promotion of new technology platforms, introduction of new generation SDMS, expanding our international partnerships, and enhancing our engagement with State Government, we see a huge potential of sustainable growth for our partners. We are expanding, we’re moving, and we look forward to a journey with you to make this country reach its natural potential”

The meet also assured the stakeholders that NSDC will be working closely with its partners in developing new business models to generate a revenue stream which will see higher private sector investment in operational expenses of NSDC.

Highlighting the challenges and the roadmap ahead, Mr. Jayant Krishna, ED & COO, NSDC said, “NSDC has skilled more than 91 lakh youth cumulatively till date, 60% of whom are gainfully employed. We have already over-achieved our targets for 2016-17 for fee based trainings and are now focusing extensively on Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) as we roll out its phase 2 this year which focuses more on quality of trainings. There has been an outflow of INR 2906 crores so far in creating this robust ecosystem recognised by industry standards. To drive quality we will now be incentivising the high performing training partners while the non–performing ones will have to be warned and asked to exit. Our focus is clearly on bringing scale, speed and quality in our endeavours to achieve the goal that we have set for ourselves.”

The meet will also witness Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge), Shri Rohit Nandan, Secretary, MSDE, Joint Secretaries and industry veterans come together and discuss ideas and opinions to strengthen and build the skill ecosystem.