Cabinet approves Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) with an outlay of Rs 12,000 crore to impart skills to one crore people, which also includes providing fresh training to 60 lakh youths, over the next four years.

The cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Among one crore people, 60 lakh will be given fresh training while 40 lakh who are already skilled without any formal training in any institution will be provided certificates under the scheme.

"This scheme will impart fresh training to 60 lakh youths and certify skills of 40 lakh persons acquired non-formally under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)," an official statement said.

"The scheme would move to a grant-based model where the training and assessment cost would be directly reimbursed to training providers and assessment bodies in accordance with the common norms," the statement added.

In this scheme, the financial support to the trainees would be given in the form of travel allowance, boarding and lodging costs. Post-placement support would be given directly to the beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

"Disbursement of training cost to training partners will be linked to Aadhaar and biometrics for better transparency and targeting. Skill training would be done based on industry-led standards aligned to the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF)," the statement said.

In view of the recommendations of the sub-group of Chief Ministers on skill development regarding the need to address the unique skill requirements of different states, state governments would be involved under the PMKVY 2016-20 with 25 per cent of the total training targets, both financial and physical, being allocated under this stream of the scheme.

"The financial amount for achieving 25 per cent of the total training targets of next phase of PMKVY would be directly allocated to the states," the statement said.

Mobilisation, monitoring and post training placement of trainees will be done through Rozgar Melas (placement camps) and Kaushal Shivirs (mobilisation camps).

In addition to catering to domestic skill needs, PMKVY will also focus on skill training aligned to international standards for overseas employment in Gulf countries, Europe and other overseas destinations.

--IANS

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