Skill for Life, Save a Life Initiative from MoHFW, MHRD-IGNOU and MSDE

The ‘Skill for Life, Save a Life’ initiative was launched in Delhi to address requirements for skilled workforce in the Healthcare sector. The tripartite MoU between Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) /IGNOU plans to train 14 lakh candidates by 2025. Under this initiative 10 short term courses pertaining to health sector under ‘Skill for Life, Save a Life’ would be offered.

Following courses are likely to be offered under the MoU:

1. General Duty Assistant
2. Geriatric Care Assistant
3. Phlebotomist
4. Home Health Aide
5. Diabetes Educator
6. Dietetic Aide
7. EMT-Basic
8. Dispensing Optician/VT
9. Medical Equipment Technology Assistant
10. Sanitary Health Inspector

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) had identified various critical thematic areas for training and standardized course curriculum for ten short term courses pertaining to health sector, which were formally released under the ‘Skill for Life, Save a Life’ initiative, jointly with Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The combined objective under this MoU is to scale up the health programs to create trained personnel in healthcare sector specially in the preventive and tertiary care segment; and to set up a dedicated cell for developing, implementing and certifying the skill-based programs at IGNOU.

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), will support this partnership with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to scale up the short-term healthcare courses through its available robust platform; with a clear focus on practical training and quality outcome. With an aim to take this further deep in the districts and villages and scale up per the standards, MoHFW is thus signing an MoU with IGNOU, which is one of the largest Universities in India with longstanding capacity to train candidates, mechanisms and systems to reach out to masses, offering distance as well as contact classes in the most cost-effective mode.

Commenting on the partnership, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), said, “Skill development in India is moving with great speed and scale and this has only been possible with the support of our partner ministries. This is yet another milestone collaboration that we are witnessing today. It is a matter of great pride for us to enable this level of convergence and coordination which will be able to translate partnerships into meaningful public good and opportunities for all. The vision of our Hon’ble Prime Minister of Ayushman Bharat will only be possible through the creation of a large qualified, skilled and competent healthcare workforce.”

“These courses are mostly in preventive and tertiary care sector and it needs a lot of practical training along with individual compassion. Our courses under Skill India will ensure that our programs have a defined curriculum which will yield maximum quality benefit to candidates training in them. All the courses under this initiative will be aligned to National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF),” he further added.

Speaking at the event, Shri Prakash Javadekar, Hon’ble Minister, MoHRD said, “These are very specialized courses which need special focus on quality training of the professionals. With the increase in the average number of years a person is expected to live and increasing lifestyle diseases, our country needs more of such professionals who can take care of the aged and the needy. This is not only an opportunity for the youth to explore opportunities of employment in but is a great service to mankind.”

Addressing at the MoU signing ceremony, Shri. J P Nadda, Hon’ble Minister for Health & Family Welfare “We would like to convey our heartfelt thanks to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Ministry of Human Resource and Development, for partnering with us on this initiative. Skill development will form the future roadmap for our nation’s growth and well-being. We have begun our pilot with 10 courses and we are certain that we will very soon align with the remaining job roles as well to the National Skill Qualification Framework under Skill India. We have a heavy focus on wellness along with healthcare.”

A robust monitoring and assessment framework will be established under the MoU to ensure that MoHFW standards are followed stringently. MoHFW will provide for financial assistance to IGNOU for establishing the structure and initiating the programs and the courses will be initiated in a phased manner across the country by IGNOU. These courses will be available to the candidates at a nominal fee of INR 5000 only.