(a) whether the Government has any schemes to impart Skill Development training along with the education in all the schools and colleges of the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government proposes to launch any new programme in the country; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
(a) to (d) Government has undertaken various initiatives towards integrating skills and education in schools and colleges of the country. Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is implementing the scheme of Vocationalisation of School Education under the umbrella of ‘Samagra Shiksha - an integrated scheme for school education’, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. The scheme seeks to integrate vocational education with general academic education with an aim to prepare educated, employable and competitive human resource for various sectors of the economy. Vocational courses are taught to the students of class 9th to 12th who opt for vocational subject in the schools covered under the scheme. The scheme is being implemented in 9735 schools across 32 states/UTs with an enrolment of more than 11 lakh students.
Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship through National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is supporting the University Grant Commission for three schemes namely Community College, Bachelor of Vocational course (BVOC) & Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Kaushal Kendras which are being introduced in different colleges and universities. Currently there are 531 colleges/universities under these schemes (275 BVOC colleges, 188 Community Colleges and 68 DDU Kaushal Kendra Colleges).
Further, NSDC has also collaborated with MHRD for the following:
i. Restructuring of BVOC by rolling out embedded apprenticeship under National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS). BVOC has multiple exits at Certificate, Diploma, Advance Diploma and Degree level. Through this, the employability of the general graduates is enhanced considerably as the student can have professional experience on the shop-floor, along with their graduation.
ii. Graduate students passing out from general degree courses viz BA, BSc and B. Com would be directly channelled into industry apprenticeship for a period of 6 months to one year depending on the sector chosen. Such apprenticeship would be assessed as per the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and a certificate at the appropriate NSQF level would be given to the successful students, apart from a monthly stipend depending on the location.