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Skills mission underperforms on training, placement goals
Placement has fallen way short of govt’s target of placing at least 70% of trained, certified youth
India’s skills mission through the flagship Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) has fallen short in both training and placement in the past six years.
PMKVY trained about 6.59 million people against a target of 7.62 million in the short-term training category, according to data presented in Parliament. Of these, only 5.25 million trained people have been certified and just 2.32 million were placed between 2015 and 10 July 2021.
The placement has fallen way short of the government’s target of placing at least 70% of trained and certified youth. Nearly 45% of those certified and around 35% of those trained were placed.
PMKVY is implemented through skill training partners affiliated to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
PMKVY started its first edition in 2015-16 and PMKVY 2.0 was administered in 2016-20, and though PMKVY 3 was initially launched in late 2020-21, it has revised with a lifeline of 2021-22.
The yojana has two components, the short-term training (STT) and recognition of prior learning (RPL). STT focuses on training, certification and placement, while RPL talks about orientation and certification based on their existing talent base. RPL does not have a placement component.
The silver lining, however, is that while PMKVY has fallen visibly short of STT targets, orientation through RPL in the past six years is 6.39 million against a target of 5.58 million. Yet, the number of people certified under RPL has been low at 5.2 million.
The placement of STT programmes of PMKVY has been a drag both at the national and state levels.
The performance of several states and Union territories is poor compared to the national average, indicating weakness in the skill training ecosystem, at least on the STT front.
This also is a testimony to the poor employment market in the past few years, even before the covid-19 pandemic disrupted the economy and led to the retrenchment of millions of workers.
In Karnataka, 222,378 people were trained under PMKVY in the past six years, but only 174,736 trained youth were certified under STT. Of these, only 72,881 were placed, according to skill ministry data submitted in Parliament. West Bengal trained 333,914 people, certified 257,358 people but got jobs for only 112,557 of them. In Delhi, only 76,154 people were placed after PMKVY certification of almost 197,000 youth in between 2015 and 10 July 2021.
“Placement has been a challenge for all the skilling partners. This is because of the bad economic environment, lack of jobs traditionally, and the pandemic in past 18 months,” said a skill training partner, who did not want to be named.
There are various provisions under PMKVY 2.0 for monitoring of training centres (TC) and candidates, the ministry said in a written statement in Parliament. The training process of candidates, including enrolment, training, assessment, certification, and placement is tracked on a real-time basis. Empaneled TCs are being monitored effectively through various methodologies such as self-audit reporting, call validations, and surprise visits, the ministry said.
“Appraisal of the on-going schemes and consequent improvements is an ongoing process. Further, to improve the monitoring under PMKVY, district skill committees (DSC) are being involved and entrusted with the monitoring under PMKVY 3.0. DSCs act as on-ground monitoring agencies for conducting inspection of empanelled TCs,” the ministry said.
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First Published:4 Aug 2021, 12:15 AM IST
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