National Skill Development Mission - UPSC Notes

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (earlier Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, first created in July 2014) was set up in November 2014 to drive the ‘Skill India’ agenda in a ‘Mission Mode’ in order to converge the existing skill training initiatives and combine scale and quality of skilling efforts, with speed. Students preparing for the IAS Exam should know about this topic as it is one of the important government schemes.

National Skill Development Mission PDF:- Download PDF Here

Government schemes are a part of the Social Justice segment of the General Studies paper 2 in the UPSC Syllabus.

National Skill Development Mission

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is responsible for the Skill India initiative. This initiative consists of:

• National Skill Development Mission
• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
• National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015
• Skill Loan Scheme

Candidates can know the detailed information about the National Skill Development Mission on the Official website of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Click on the link to read more about the Initiatives Under Skill India Mission. 

The mission was launched for creating convergence across various sectors and different States in terms of activities relating to skill training. The mission would, along with consolidating & coordinating skilling efforts, expedite decision making across sectors to achieve quality skilling on a large scale.

Mission Statement

“To rapidly scale up skill development efforts in India, by creating an end-to-end, outcome-focused implementation framework, which aligns demands of the employers for a well-trained skilled workforce with aspirations of Indian citizens for sustainable livelihoods.”

National Skill Development Mission Objectives

• Implementing the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) which will allow opportunities for long-term, as well as short-term training, leading to productive employment and career improvement. 
• Using the framework to maintain a balance between the industry/employer demand and the workforce which will lead to a sustainable livelihood because of determined training. 
• Providing facilities of re-skilling and up-skilling to the workforce of the unorganised sectors of the industry.
• Ensuring high-quality training standards through high-quality teaching and benchmarked institutions according to national and international standards which result in a highly-skilled workforce and global job opportunities.
• Support weaker and disadvantaged sections of society through focused outreach programmes and targeted skill development activities.
• Enabling pathways for transitioning between the vocational training system and the formal educational system, through a credit transfer system.
• Maintaining a national database, known as the Labour Market Information System (LMIS), which will act as a portal for matching the demand and supply of skilled workforce in the country. 
  • The LMIS, will, on the one hand, provide citizens with vital information on skilling initiatives across the country. 
  • On the other, it will also serve as a platform for monitoring the performance of existing skill development programmes, running in every Indian state.

Sub Missions under NSDM

Government Initiatives to Promote Skill Development

1. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): Aims to provide free skill training avenues to youths of India.
2. Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement- STRIVE: The main focus of the scheme is to improve the performance of ITIs.  The scheme is a World Bank assisted-Government of India project with the objective of improving the relevance and efficiency of skills training provided through Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and apprenticeships.
3. Skill Saathi Counseling Program: MSDE also launched the Skill Saathi program which was aimed to sensitize the youth of the country on various avenues under Skill India Mission and increase the aspiration for skill development.
4. SANKALP: Centrally Sponsored Scheme which is collaborated with the World Bank and focuses on district-level skilling ecosystem through convergence and coordination. Candidates can know in detail about SANKALP and Strive Scheme, Aim and Objective on the given link.
5. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK): These are the state-of-the-art Model Training Centres envisaged to create benchmark institutions that demonstrate aspirational value for competency-based skill development training.
6. Industrial Training Centres (ITIs): Aims to expand and modernize the existing Long-Term Training ecosystem in India.
7. Offering vocational courses and Working closely with CBSE to develop “Hubs of Excellence in Skills” for school students, MSDE will introduce high-quality, technology-oriented skill programs to schools. Read more on the need for Vocational Education on the linked page.

You can find more UPSC related preparation materials and articles with the links given in the table below:

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