MGNF – Decoding district level skilling and entrepreneurship

Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) is a two-year fellowship programme intended to support skill development and entrepreneurship at the district level. It is a certificate programme in Public Policy and Management offered by IIMs, which has been designed as the initiative of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).

To understand more about MGNF, and how it is contributing towards strengthening the skill ecosystem at the grassroots level, the roles, and responsibilities of the MGN Fellows in districts, we interacted with the current cohort, who are now undergoing district immersion in Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Uttarakhand.

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MGNF is a combination of classroom sessions (Academic Module) hosted by IIMs with an intensive field immersion at the district level (District Immersion). The MGN Fellows are assigned to pre-selected districts and are trained in key areas around development, management, skill development, to be able to create plans and identify barriers in promoting and enabling livelihood.

When asked what are some of the activities, they are part of, as an MGN Fellow, they enthusiastically shared how each day of theirs in the district is full of learning and new experiences.

Broadly, some of the works carried out by the MGN Fellows are to set up District Skill Committees (DSCs) in places they are not yet available and to activate them in the places they are already setup. MGN Fellows are actively involved in preparing District Skill Development Plans (DSDP), to help in identifying the required skills and to carry out demand-driven skill training. On a day-to-day basis, they interact with the public, businesses, industry, NGOs, government officials, and academia. They also actively participate in converging and bridging the gaps between different government departments.

Applications for Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) now open! – https://nationalskillsnetwork.in/applications-for-mahatma-gandhi-national-fellowship-mgnf-now-open/

The MGN Fellows facilitate the smooth implementation of skill development and training at the district level. Along with this, they also engage schemes with district-level institutions to strengthen them while improving livelihoods, creating market linkages, and thereby growth of the district.