Following the objective of engaging more than 10 lakh apprentices over the next one year, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) today organized a virtual workshop with Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). CPSEs were briefed on the latest reforms and initiatives undertaken by the ministry and were encouraged to engage more apprentices. Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for MSDE and MEITY participated in the workshop and shared their views with the CPSEs on how best they can contribute towards this national building exercise.

The workshop was attended by CMDs, HR manager and CSR heads of more than 100 CPSEs who share their work on apprenticeship training and discussed opportunities and challenges in making the apprenticeship model a success in the country.

Shri Dharmendra Pradhan called upon the CPSEs to explore innovative ways to drive skill development, including adopting Industrial Training Centers, Jan Shikshan Sansthans (JSS) of their local areas, engage more apprentices, align their skilling framework with NSQF, and leverage CSR to augment skill development efforts under the overall Skill India mission. We are rolling out the recommendations of the NEP2020. We must create strong integration of education and skilling to create a more vibrant and versatile workforce, he further added.

The Minister said that the nature of work is changing. We must introduce knowledge around topics like energy, sustainability, data management. I call upon PSUs too to put forward their suggestions & ideas for preparing a dynamic, progressive and modern National Curriculum Framework.

Shri Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that the companies should not only focus on fresh skilling but also on up-skilling, re-skilling and multi-skilling as well, so that they can easily adopt to the fast-changing nature of jobs today. Apprenticeship being one of the most sustainable model of skill development, should be extensively promoted by both MSDE and the management at CPSUs. Skilling should either be incentivised or made mandatory across direct and indirect workforce across all companies. We should ensure that our workforce is formally skilled and certified under the Skill India Mission, he added.

He further said that Skilling and Reskilling are playing an important role in helping youth adapt to new opportunities post Covid. The industry should play an active role in shaping job role, he added.

MSDE suggested that CPSEs support skilling-workplace convergence through DGTs Dual System of Training (DST) Scheme/ Flexi MoU Scheme, participate in Training of Trainers (ToT) program, modernization and development of curriculum with focus towards skilling for global requirement and also provide support to upgradtion of labs, setting up of labs, development of infrastructure of National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs)/ ITIs/Jan ShikshanSansthan (JSS) centres and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs) under MSDE.

It was also suggested that CPSEs support and involve themselves in innovative collaborations that will enable seamless flow of industry ready trained manpower and gradually move towards hiring of certified skilled workers at PSUs and instruct sub-contractors of CPSUs to hire certain percentage of certified skilled persons under their contract, engaging apprentices, training existing workers through RPL.

It was also suggested that CPSUs training centers can be utilized for training of trainers for NSTI/ ITIs/PMKKs/ JSS faculties and there should be active participation in curriculum development.

Skill India, in partnership with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, has recently organised a day-long ' Pradhan Mantri National Apprenticeship Mela' across 700+ locations in the country, on April 21, 2022. The event was a success, with 1, 51,497 students and 8968 establishments participating from over 30 sectors, including power, retail, telecom, IT, electronics, automotive. More than 29000 apprentices were hired in a single day at this industry-youth connect platform. MSDE will continue to organize these Apprenticeship/Rozgar Mela every month and will also conduct 250+ cluster-based workshops across the country to promote the apprenticeship model of skill development.

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