Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon’ble Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship today reviewed the Ministry’s World Bank loan assisted “Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP)” programme at the first Program Governance Board Meeting, which is the apex body for governance of the scheme. Hon’ble Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri Raj Kumar Singh, also graced the meeting with his presence. The meeting was attended by senior officials of MSDE and six other Ministries.  

It was informed that all 36 States/ UTs across country have submitted their consent for participation in SANKALP and a total of first year grants released by Ministry to 9 States (namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh). In addition to these State 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.

Hon’ble Minister mentioned that efforts need to be taken for strengthening the District Skilling ecosystem. He mentioned that the perception of youth towards skilling needs to be improved and suggested that District Skill Committee (DSC) should play a pivotal role in counselling youth in their districts. He also suggested that MPs can be involved to review the performance of the District Skill Committee (DSC) and the different skilling efforts in their districts. He mentioned that the training of the trainers is a key component of the ecosystem and same needs to be strengthened. 

Hon’ble MoS, Shri Raj Kumar Singh, carrying forward the suggestions made by Dr. Pandey, mentioned that the skill training centres should have quality infrastructure and the certificate issued to the candidate should be valued. He further mentioned that SANKALP can assist in converging the skilling efforts across different schemes of the Ministries. He mentioned that the demand mapping of the skilling requirements across sectors and geographies needs to be ascertained.

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). Under SANKALP four key result areas have been identified viz: (i) Institutional Strengthening (at National, State & District level); (ii) Quality Assurance Quality Assurance of skill development programs; (iii) Inclusion of marginalised population in skill development; and (iv) Expanding Skills through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). 

Further, it was also informed that the Ministry has launched an award to promote skill planning at the district level, namely “District Skill Development Plan (DSDP) Awards”. Under this, 225 districts across the country participated by submitting their DSDPs. Of these, 25 districts were invited to Delhi for presenting their DSDP. The final evaluation is underway and the best DSDPs would be awarded accordingly