About 2.5 crore individuals have been trained under various skill development programmes of the government, informed Dharmendra Pradhan, minister for skill development & entrepreneurship and petroluem & natural gas, at a press conference to highlight the four year achievements of his ministry. Out of this, more than 50 lakh have been trained under the ministry's flagship scheme – Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). The minister, however, did not disclose placement numbers under the scheme. The scheme has been criticised in the past for its poor track record in placing candidates.
The PMKVY dashboard, a centrally managed, live indicator of statistics on the scheme says that 6,03,289 people have been placed so far. The revamped PMKVY, also known as PMKVY-2 started on October 2, 2016 with an outlay of Rs 12,000 crore to impart skilling to one crore people over four years (2016-20). According to the PMKVY dashboard, only a little more than 28 lakh people have been trained under PMKVY 2 (including short term training and RPL), which leaves a huge target to be completed in the next two years.
The minister further said that the government has been working actively on building more PMKKs (Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras) and so far more than 450 such centres are operational.
"By the end of 2018, country’s 700 districts will have a PMKK each, with the help of industry and our training partner ecosystem. We are also looking at creating progression pathways for the youth who are in our skill ecosystem by ensuring that they are not only skilled; but are hand-held and are also then further linked to entrepreneurship opportunities through Government of India’s MUDRA Yojana. Over the next one quarter (July, August, Sept) we aim to link one lakh skilled students to entrepreneurship,” he said.
Another achievement that the minister enumerated was on 32 per cent increase in ITI count and 54 per cent increase in seating capacity since 2014. One of the aims of the ministry is to have an ITI in every block and transform central institutions into National Skill Trainers’ Institute to focus on capacity-building of trainers.
Under its National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), more than 3.95 lakh apprentices have been trained and more than 48000 companies have registered themselves.
Recognising the involvement of multiple stakeholders in skill development, spanning central ministries and state governments, the ministry has been working to standardise various skill development interventions with respect to intended outcomes. It has developed common norms on skill outcomes expected of similar training programs, irrespective of who is running it. "All skilling initiatives will now be aligned to a common framework approved by the government and the industry,” said Pradhan.