NSDC's STAR scheme sees 11,823 trainee enrolments since Aug

The National Skill Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme launched in August this year has seen a total of 11,823 trainee enrolments, with 1,279 of them having completed the training programme.

The scheme that is branded as STAR (Standard Training Assessment and Reward) aims to encourage skill development for youth by providing monetary rewards for successful completion of approved training programmes.

According to NSDC, there are as many as 2,393 training centres pan India, out of which 1,708 belong to NSDC. As many as 685 are non-NSDC centres.

As of November 21, the total trainee enrolments in the STAR scheme stood at 11,823, of which as many as 1,279 have completed the training programme.

"The training target for current financial year FY 2013-14 is 10 lakh individuals," National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) Managing Director and CEO Dilip Chenoy told PTI.

Chenoy further said that such skill development programme would help in bridging the gap between the service sector, the manufacturing sector and the levels of education that is meted out to the students in this country.

Through this scheme, NSDC aims to standardise the certification process and initiate a process of creating a registry of skills; and increase productivity of the existing workforce besides aligning the training and certification to the needs of the country.

They provide monetary awards for skill certification to boost employability and productivity of youth.

This is through skill trainings incentives for candidates undergoing such training by authorised institutions at an average monetary reward of Rs 10,000 per candidate.

Elaborating further, Chenoy said the higher one gets certified, the more rewards one would get.

"Around Rs 1,000 crore would be transferred to the National Skill development fund, which in turn would be given to those candidates who complete the programme through direct bank transfer," he added.

In his Budget Speech of 2013, the Finance Minister P Chidambaram had proposed a scheme to encourage skill development for youth by providing monetary rewards on successful completion of approved training programmes.