Prime Minister’s ambitious Skill India mission will be a mass campaign involving the youth to encourage them to take up Skilling and vocational training to improve their employability. The mission will be launched today by the Prime Minister. “Nearly 18 ministers, including Union ministers as well as chief ministers will be attending the event,” said a senior government official.

“While a number of chief ministers will be in New Delhi, each of the states too will launch the Mission to create awareness amongst youth about the need for skilling,” said the official.

The ministry of skill development & entrepreneurship will be signing strategic partnerships with ministry of defense, ministry of railways, ministry of overseas Indian affairs, ministry of heavy industries & public enterprises, ministry of health & family welfare, ministry of chemicals and fertilizers, ministry of steel, ministry of coal, ministry of power, ministry of new and renewable energy and ministry of social justice and empowerment.

This will Leverage existing government infrastructure to deliver skill training programmes, mobilize CSR funds of PSUs to support skilling, upgrade equipment of ITIs and NSDC/SSC affiliated training providers, promote and scale up apprenticeship training in PSUs, incentivize hiring of NSQF certified personnel, promote adoption of ITIs by PSUs, introduce vocational courses in schools run by ministries / PSUs, establish ‘Centres of Excellence’ for high quality skill training and scale up skill training programs, for persons with Disabilities.

Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra, chiefs of industry associations as well as Teamlease Services chairman Manish Sabharwal and Romesh Wadhwani of the Wadhwani Foundation, were also invited to the function.

The government plans to skill 40.2 crore workers by 2022 and a number of schemes, including the new National Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana and the skill loan scheme will be launched. The Prime Minister will unveil a new logo and slogan for the Skill India mission and gives out letters of employment to some of the students who have successfully undergone skill training.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, minister of state for skill development & entrepreneurship, said, “The National Mission will converge, coordinate, implement and monitor skilling activities across India. It will also be a vehicle to achieve the objectives of the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015, which will provide policy direction and guidance to all stakeholders in the skill development and entrepreneurship ecosystem.”

By Premji