Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a host of skilling initiatives over the next three years that could make India the global hub for skilling, including stipends to 47 lakh youth, setting up of Skill India Digital Platform and building 30 Skill India International Centres across different states to open up job opportunities for Indian youths overseas.
“This will enable demand-based formal skilling, link eligible candidates with employers including MSMEs and facilitate access to entrepreneurship schemes,” Sitharaman said in her Budget speech on Wednesday.
The government is of the view that on-the-job training will help raise the employability of our youth and open job opportunities for India’s skilled workforce in other countries.
PMKVY 4.0 will be industry centric and impart training on new age courses like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones and soft skills.
Under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, the government will provide stipend support to 47 lakh youth in three years through direct benefit transfer for which a pan-India National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme will be rolled out.
Under PMKVY 3.0, which was launched with a lag due to the outbreak of the pandemic in January 2021 for the fiscal year 2020-21, the ministry of skills development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) had targeted to train over eight lakh candidates with a budget outlay of Rs 948.9 crore. The government has so far imparted skills to 13.2 million candidates till December 31, 2021 under PMKVY which was launched in 2015, including 4.45 lakh candidates under PMKVY 3.0.
As part of its Vision 2047, the government wants India to be the largest skill bank in the world, transforming itself into a hub of economic activities using sustainable technologies while also reaping the benefits of demographic dividend in the country.
