What is PMKVY Scheme – Evolution of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana From PMKVY 2.0 to PMKVY 3.0

In 2018, 67% of India’s population was of working age, according to the World Bank, and 47% of the population was under 25 years old, according to the Sample Registration System 2018 by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. In 2015, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) started the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) to train and improve the skills of the country’s capable workforce. This was done to take advantage of the country’s population and boost the economy.

Under this plan, the government will evaluate and certify people who haven’t learned anything before or have no skills. They will also provide training based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry-led standards. The government will also pay the fees for evaluation and certification and the costs of training, housing, and food.

What is PMKVY Scheme?

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says India will have 4,717 million workers in 2020. Of these workers, 41.1% will be in the farm sector, followed by the service sector (32.33%) and the industry sector (26.18%). In 2019, India’s workforce participation rate (as a percentage of the total population) was 48.14 per cent for people over the age of 15 and 26.6 per cent for people between the ages of 15 and 24. In 2019, according to the ILO’s Periodic Labour Force Survey (LFS), the jobless rate for people ages 20 to 24 was 21.1%, and for people ages 25 to 29, it was 9.8%.

India had 438 lakh unemployed people ready to work as of March 2021. A recent study by the National Sample Study Office (NSSO) showed that India lacked training facilities for as many as 20 high-growth industries, such as logistics, healthcare, construction, hospitality, and automobiles. The ILO says that by 2030, India will likely need more than 29 million skilled workers. Corporates and research institutes have found that 65–75% of the 15 million young people who join the workforce yearly are not ready for work or employable. If this skill gap keeps growing at its current rate, most industries will have 75–80% skill gap problems.

Through the PMKVY, the government hopes to improve the effectiveness of a skilled workforce and, as a result, help India grow as a whole. At the neighbourhood level, there is a massive gap between what businesses need and what people know how to do. This gap is quickly getting more prominent because of the pandemic. Employers are still looking for people with the skills they need, and many lost workers with limited skills are trying to get their jobs back. Also, the current ecosystem for skilling needs a new game plan. As “work from home” becomes more common, functional jobs in different sectors are being rethought, causing fundamental changes in the ecosystem.

KEY OBJECTIVES

• Encourage and organize young people to get training that will help them get jobs.
• Increase the skills and productivity of the current workforce and ensure skill training aligns with what the business needs.
• Standardize the certification process and use it on a bigger scale to make the National Skills Registry (NSR) a database of information about professionals as entered by them and information about their background checks. It has information about the people who work in the business or want to work there, as well as their education and jobs.

PRADHAN MANTRI KAUSHAL VIKAS YOJANA – PMKVY (2016-2026)

PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana 1.0 (2015-16)

PMKVY started as a test program in 2015, and it was meant to be a way to certify skills and give people rewards. The scheme was run by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Sector Skill Councils (SSCs). The SSCs were established as independent industry-led bodies to set occupational standards, create a competency framework, study skill gaps, and test and certify trainees.

The NSDC also set up Training Partners (TPs), which are private companies, non-profit organizations, and private and public universities that sign a term sheet with the NSDC and get money to implement training ideas. Under the plan, 19.85 million people were trained between 2015 and 2016. After PMKVY 1.0 worked well, the Union Cabinet decided to keep it going for another four years, from 2016 to 2020, for Rs. 12,000 crores (US$ 1.6 billion).

PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana 2.0 (2016-20)

The government started PMKVY 2.0 in July 2016 to expand the program to more sectors and areas and make it fit with other government missions like “Make in India,” “Digital India,” and “Swachh Bharat Mission.” From 2016 to 2020, 89.59 lakh people were trained through PMKVY 2.0. The government set aside Rs. 12,000 crores ($1.6 billion) for this program, but only Rs. 7,115 crores ($967 million) was approved until January 2021.

PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana 3.0 (2020-26)

Based on what was learned from PMKVY 1.0 and PMKVY 2.0, the MSDE launched the newer version of the scheme to fit the current policy doctrine and revive the skilling ecosystem, which had been affected by the pandemic. The PMKVY 3.0 plan will be carried out in two parts. The first part, which cost Rs. 949 crores (US$129 million), was tested as a pilot project in FY21 (2020-21). Between 2020 and 2021, 2.78 million people were trained under this new plan.

During the first part of PMKVY 3.0, the government will also set up the framework for the second phase, which will run from 2021 to 2026. Also, the government is trying to create a way for programs with similar goals run by central and state governments to work better together. These programs include the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), MUDRA loans under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY), and the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Under PMKVY, 108.65 lakh people were taught between 2015 and 2021.

Key Components of PMKVY Scheme

Short Term Training (STT)

Under the PMKVY, the STT gives training programs to young people (15–45 years old) who are unemployed or who have dropped out of school or college. These programs are built on the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF). The PMKVY guidelines say these training centers must have accreditations and affiliations. They offer soft skills, entrepreneurship, financial, and digital literacy courses. The length of these courses depends on the job role and can be anywhere from 150 to 300 hours. Also, the government helps people who have finished the certification classes and are looking for jobs, starting their businesses, or becoming apprentices.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

RPL is an assessment method that looks at a person’s existing skills, knowledge, and experience, whether they were learned in a formal setting or not. Through this parameter, people who have already learned something or have skills can sign up for the plan and get certified. The main goal of RPL is to ensure that the skills of the people already working in the country match up with the uniform NSQF.

Special Projects

Due to how STT’s rules and regulations are written, training projects for new skills that can’t be done through STT may be considered for unique projects on a case-by-case basis. Special projects aim to develop new, meaningful, and valuable projects that could help people who are marginalized, vulnerable, socially disadvantaged, hidden, or hard to reach through placement-linked and entrepreneurial skill development training programs.

For projects to be considered as special projects, they must meet the following criteria:

• If the job roles are not covered by the PMKVY job roles that are already in place,
• If the TP gives more than or equal to 80% captive placement or 90% wage work,
• Training courses exist in different institutions, like jails and government buildings.
• Proposals for training that are partly paid for by the PMKVY and other sources
• These rules can change from project to project or from case to case.

Kaushal and Rozgar Mela

Social and community mobilization is an essential part of PMKVY’s success because active involvement from the community ensures transparency and accountability and helps use the community’s collective knowledge to work better. In line with this, PMKVY gives a lot of importance to getting the people who are supposed to benefit from it involved through a precise mobilization method. The TPs hold the Kaushal and Rozgar Mela every six months, and the media report it.

Placement Assistance

PMKVY plan will help people find jobs after training under this scheme. Training places must work harder to find jobs for people who have completed their programs. Entrepreneurship growth program candidates will get help from training partners.

Continuous Monitoring

To make sure that TCs and the NSDC keep up high standards, the appointed inspection agencies to use different methods, such as self-audit reporting, call validations, surprise visits, and monitoring through the Skills Development Management System (SDMS), which manages the whole process, from enrolling candidates to paying TPs in tranches and giving candidates certificates.