Background

Knowledge and skills are the driving forces for social development and economic growth for any country. As there is demand-supply mismatch, the economy needs more ‘skilled’ workforce than in the availability of it. In the school and higher education sphere, knowledge and skills are required for diverse forms of employment in all the industry sectors and other services. By realizing the importance and the necessity for developing skills among students, National Education Policy 2020 emphasised on mainstreaming vocational education and to enable removal of academic silos, a Credit based framework to ensure vertical and horizontal pathways for students and creating work-ready human capital.

1.  The ‘Skill Hub Initiative’ under the PMKVY 3.0 scheme shall focus on the introduction of skill training programmes in the education ecosystems.

2.  Initiative shall consider the policy level synergy on integration of vocational education with general education as envisioned in the ‘National Education Policy 2020’. The effort shall supplement the objectives of ‘National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015’.

3. As envisioned in the Guidelines of the PMKVY 3.0, for creation of state-of-the-art and sustainable skill Training Centres, phase-wise introduction of vocational courses in school curriculum in coordination with Ministry of Education (MoE) is the need of the hour. This can be accomplished through technical support, greater cross utilization of available infrastructure from Universities/ Colleges/ Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs)/ Polytechnics/ Schools, strengthening of District Skill Committees (DSCs), State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs)/ State Directorate of Technical Education along with handholding, strategic and funding support.

In view of the above, successful integration of skilling with education will require support and synergy from every stakeholder(s) such as MoE, MSDE, other central Ministries/Departments, SSDMs, DSCs, Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), School boards and other key players like Schools, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Polytechnics, Training Providers (TPs).

The ‘Skill Hub Initiative’ shall be implemented under Central component of PMKVY 3.0 through National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and support of State Education Department/Agencies. The implementation of the initiative shall ensure broad-based convergence of vocational education with formal education in a phased manner to achieve outcomes with speed and standard.

What is Skill Hub?

Skill Hubs are nodal skill centres identified to provide skill development and vocational training opportunities to target population segments from class 6-8th (introduction to world-of-work through orientation, industry visits, bag-less days), 9th to 12th (aimed at exposing students to skill development avenues), school dropouts and out-of-education (aimed for academic credit, mainstreaming back to education and or apprenticeship and employment linkages).

Any entity from the below mentioned category will be selected as a Skill Hub depending on the available capacity and/ or previous experience of imparting vocational courses:

• Schools (Government, and Private)
• Higher Education Institutions (Engineering, Technical and General Institutions including institutions offering Language courses)
• Polytechnics
• Government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs)
• Other Govt Skilling Institutions like RSETI, NIELIT, etc
• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs)
• Corporate Skill Institutions/ Industry Bodies.
• Institutions under Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) Scheme
• Institutes under Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME)