SANKALP scheme- to enhance skill development

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TOPIC: General Studies 2

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
• Skill development; Education, Human Resources development

SANKALP: Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion 

The Scheme: SANKALP is an outcome-oriented centrally sponsored programme of Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) with a special focus on decentralised planning and quality improvement. It focuses on the overall skilling ecosystem covering both Central & State agencies. 

• SANKALP aims to implement the mandate of the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM).
• SANKALP has total project size of $675 million, including World Bank assistance of $500 million, in two tranches of $250 million each.

Under SANKALP four key result areas have been identified viz: 

1. Institutional Strengthening (at National, State & District level); 
2. Quality Assurance Quality Assurance of skill development programs
3. Inclusion of marginalised population in skill development
4. Expanding Skills through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)

The scheme has a six-year implementation schedule, and aims to 

• Create convergence among all skill training activities
• Improve quality of skill development programmes through building a pool of quality trainers and assessors model curriculum and content
• Establish robust monitoring and evaluation system for skill training programs, and more
• Enhancement of inclusion of underprivileged and marginalized communities including women, Scheduled Castes (SCs)/Schedule Tribes (STs) and Persons with Disabilities (PWD). It will also develop a skilling ecosystem that will support the country’s rise in Ease of Doing Business index.

Across the country

• All 36 States/ UTs across country have submitted their consent for participation in SANKALP
• First year grants released by Ministry to 9 States (namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh). 
• Grants of Rs 10 lakh each also released to 117 aspirational districts under Aspirational Skilling Abhiyaan. 
• A robust IT system namely “Skill India Portal” has also been developed under SANKALP to capture and converge skill data.

Way forward:

• Efforts need to be taken for strengthening the District Skilling ecosystem. 
• The perception of youth towards skilling needs to be improved. District Skill Committee (DSC) can play a pivotal role in counselling youth in their districts. MPs can be involved to review the performance of the District Skill Committee (DSC) and the different skilling efforts in their districts. 
• Training of the trainers is a key component of the ecosystem and same needs to be strengthened.
• The skill training centres should have quality infrastructure and the certificate issued to the candidate should be valued. 
• SANKALP can assist in converging the skilling efforts across different schemes of the ministries. 
• Further, the demand mapping of skilling requirements across sectors and geographies needs to be ascertained.

Do you know?

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid foundation stone of the country’s first Indian Institute of Skills (IIS) in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh to make India the Skill Capital of the World.

About Indian Institute of Skills (IIS)

• The IIS is being opened by the Union Skill Development Ministry in partnership with the Institute of Technical Education, Singapore.
• The idea of IIS was conceptualised by PM Modi during his visit to Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education.
• Its primary objective is to empower India’s youth to be more employable and self-sustainable.
• The Union Skill Development Ministry has planned to set up six such institutes across country in coming years.

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