India will soon get its first skill university for accreditation of skilling centers and to allow them to issue degrees and diplomas equivalent to conventional educational institutions. Employment exchanges in the country will also act as skill counseling centers.
These are some of the major recommendations of a sub-group of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog firmed up after consultation with all states.
According to a senior functionary of the panel, the country’s first national skill university will provide guidance to skill training institutes being run by the government and the private sector on grading students on 10 point scale under the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).
The framework organises qualification according to level of knowledge, skills and aptitude at par with formal education system. A person with no formal education can also get a certificate of equivalence to formal education like upper primary or higher secondary under the framework depending on his skill and knowledge of a particular profession. The framework allows one to upgrade his or her certification by training at different skill centers.
The new university will implement the framework in place of the All India Council for Technical Education which was mandated by the UPA government to do so. Sources said the AICTE under the HRD ministry was found wanting in its implementation as skill training programmes were run by different ministries.
As the government has created the skill development ministry as nodal point for skill management in the country, the proposed university will be under the ministry and will implement NSQF.
To prevent duplication of effort, the sub-group has recommended that the university should be nodal office to implement quality and standards in all skill training institutes across the country with a special focus on employability.
The sub-group has also recommended that employment exchanges across the country should be converted into skill counseling centers to help the youth to get trained for a job as per his or her aptitude. For this, the proposed university will provide a framework.
The panel has, however, rejected the idea of having a skill university in every state. “The states have agreed to get their skill training centers accredited to the new university,” an official said.
The NITI Aayog has also negated the proposal of right to skill as suggested by skill development minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy. The sub-group suggested the government can bring a right to skill policy as done in Chhattisgarh which provides a “holistic” approach towards achieving the goal of providing skill to all youth.
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