In view of the COVID 19 crisis having accelerated and accentuated the need to review and upgrade the existing systems and processes to bring a boost to the Skill India Mission, the Federation of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), released a report, Skill India Reforms: Study on Regulations, Compliances and the Skill Ecosystem’ during its 13th Global Skills Summit – Education to Employability: Making it happen’ in New Delhi on Sep 27. The report was unveiled by the union skills minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, who assured to look into the report recommendations for acceptance.
FICCI’s skill development committee had constituted a Task Force comprising members from diverse fields was constituted. Several rounds of deliberations were held within the Taskforce, besides discussions with stake holders—Industry Representatives, CEO’s of Sector Skill Councils, Skilling Agencies, Training Partners, Skill Universities, and International Agencies such as ILO and UNDP with the objective to review the Rules, Regulations, Compliances, Policies, and Practices in the areas of skill development that not only ensures ease of doing businesses but also focuses on livelihood and employability. “In this report, we have made an earnest effort to recognise the bottlenecks and impediments that are slowing down the pace of creating livelihoods through skilling & have proposed recommendations to resolve these,” the report says.
While the report has captured the regulations, schemes and bottlenecks and provided a snapshot of the formal skilling effort in the country, the highlight is the set of recommendations it has made for the Government, for industry and its bodies, and academia. These recommendations are based on the various rounds of consultative meetings with the Industry Leaders, CEOs of Sector Skill Councils, International Organizations, Training Partners, Universities (Skills), etc.
Recommendations for the Govt
- Develop a uniform, standardised skill development policy and a central nodal agency for the formulation and release of Skill Dev schemes.
- Compile comprehensive guidelines and related rules at a single platf
- Review Skill India Portal, to make it all encompassing, covering all Skilling schemes, and enabling end- to-end implementation.
- Develop a National Integrated Data System, for E-to-E Stack (Education to Employment).
- Develop and implement outreach and communication programs, regarding Skilling schemes to bring clarity for the Skilling agencies and those being skilled.
- Skill Gap Studies be carried out to have demand-driven Skilling.
- A tracking and evaluation mechanism be created to make Skilling transparent, and outcome based.
- Align NSQF curriculum with ITI for acceptance by industry while hiring.
- Career Counselling be made part of the Skilling process.
- Evolve a functional Skilling framework for the informal sector.
- Review the areas highlighted under operational category (indicated in the report) to facilitate better Skilling.
Recommendations for Industry and Industry Bodies- Sector SkillCouncils
- Collaborate with Govt. in the communication and outreach programs.
- Collaborate with Govt in the Skill Gap Studies and projection of job opportunities to make
- Skilling demand-driven.
- Associate in aligning the NSQF curriculum with the ITI to enable recognition and acceptance of the same while hiring.
- Associate in evolving a mechanism to evaluate Skilling along with outcome.
- Review and include the industry customized specialized programs, especially for upskilling along with NSQF e.g. the health sector.
- Review of Skilling infrastructure to ensure optimal utilisation. Some companies having state-of-the-art training facilities may consider pooling resources with smaller companies, especially clusters of MSMEs.
- Sector Skill Councils, as autonomous industry led bodies be responsible for the creation of Qualification Packs to ensure standardized curriculum to be approved by NCVET.
Recommendations for the Academia
- Enhancement of Industry Academia interface to give impetus to blended learning models.
- Integration of technology with the current system, for creating e-curriculums, e-learning tools, platforms for online attendance etc.
