New Delhi : The finance minister, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman in her fourth Budget speech today made some important announcements regarding the skilling and education sector. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has welcomed the General Budget proposals presented in the Lok Sabha today saying, “Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman has presented a progressive Budget that looks to building India as a skill hub for the world. With the launch of the DESH Stack e-Portal — Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood — we have a transparent platform that provides payment and discovery layers to boost livelihood and entrepreneurial growth besides proving access to online training, all at one place. The technology architecture founded on Trust-Payment-Discovery enabling protocols will help citizens find trusted skilling courses and training institutes and a place to store their skill and experience certificates in Digi Locker, which in turn, can be accessed by employers to verify profiles of skilled professionals. Similarly, Payment Technology protocols will help needy citizens access government funding for training, while Discovery Technology protocols will allow transparent discovery of skilling courses, institutes, loan, scholarship, CSR and job opportunities. This will encourage skill-seekers, prospective employers and financial institutions to come to the portal and is in line with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of building the largest skilling programme in the world, where we aim to skill 10 crore Indians in the next five years. Different ministries have come together to fulfil this vision, a fact that is amply reflected in the National Education Policy 2020 that envisages seamless integration of education and skilling. The Drone Shakti program is yet another step in this direction that will receive a boost from Drone as a Service and will give wings to ITIs and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to build synergies between long-term and short-term training programmes (implemented in collaboration with Industry, other organizations and relevant Ministries).”

1.     Udyam, e-Shram, NCS and ASEEM portals will be interlinked. Their scope will be widened. They will now perform as portals with live, organic databases, providing G2C, B2C and B2B services. These services will relate to credit facilitation, skilling, and recruitment with an aim to further formalise the economy and enhance entrepreneurial opportunities for all.

MSDE will work with MSME and MoLE for integration of various digital platforms to provide unified opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship.

2.     Skilling programmes and partnership with the industry will be reoriented to promote continuous skilling avenues, sustainability, and employability. The National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) will be aligned with dynamic industry needs.

MSDE is engaging with Industry and re-align existing NSQF as per dynamic industry needs for which NCVET is being asked to roll out necessary framework.

3.     Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood – the DESH-Stack e-portal – will be launched. This aims to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through on-line training. It will also provide API-based trusted skill credentials, payment and discovery layers to find relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.

DESH is extension of Aadhar-DBT-Jan-Dhan-BHIM technology architecture. DESH technology architecture is founded on Trust-Payment-Discovery enabling technology protocols and specifications. Trust Technology protocols on one hand help citizens find trustworthy skilling courses and Training Institutes and on the other hand help citizens store their Skill Certificates and Experience Certificates in Digi Locker which can be verified by employers to access trusted and verified profiles of skilled professionals. Payment Technology protocols/specifications help needy citizens to access government funding for training in their chosen skilling/reskilling/upskilling courses. Discovery Technology protocols/specifications allow transparent discovery of skilling courses/skilling institutes, Loan/scholarship/CSR opportunities and job opportunities.

Like Aadhar and UPI, DESH is also a set of open protocols/specifications, open data sources, and open APIs which will help start-ups to build innovative solutions to help everycitizen maximize their potential by availing skilling/reskilling/upskilling and employment/entrepreneurship opportunities.

4.     Startups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ through varied applications and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS). In select ITIs, in all states, the required courses for skilling, will be started. 

The DGT has already designed a six month duration training programme in ‘Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA)/ Drone Pilot’ Trade in it is.  Short term courses in Drone Assembly/Repair/Coding etc. have also been designed by Sector Skill Councils.

The above programme would be rolled out in select ITIs across all States. Besides, NSDC & SSCs would also help implement this training programme through various industry associations. Multi-Skilling needs in this from Ministries like Agriculture, Chemicals & Fertilizers etc. will also be factored in.

5.     National Council of Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) has approved more than 5,100 industry aligned qualifications till January 2022, on the request of various Sector Skill Councils and other awarding bodies. It has identified future skills required by the industry in close collaboration with SSCs, DGT, Central Ministries, State Governments, industry experts.

6.     NCVET is closely working on skills required for Industry 4.0 and beyond. Efforts have been made for NSQF-level alignment of industry-recognized courses from top companies like Oracle, Microsoft, TATA, CISCO and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) courses to skill/upskill/reskill the youth.

7.     DGT has got qualification tag on drones approved under NSQF for implementation in ITIs:

• Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS) – Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA)/Drone Pilot (Refresher Course)

• Drone Technician

• Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA)/Drone Pilot

• Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA)/Drone Pilot (CTS)

8.     Under NCVET, a Unified Credit Framework will be implemented from the next academic session. This Framework will seamlessly integrate vocational education and training in school and higher education and enable multiple entry-exit along with fulfillment of the quality manpower requirements in industry.