Karnataka to impart trade skills in 100 schools

The Karnataka government Monday signed an agreement with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to impart trade skills in 100 state-run schools to make students employable after secondary education.

"We hope to deliver training modules, as it is imperative to harness skills at the education stage so youth are trained and employable from the beginning," NSDC principal Rajiv Mathur said on the occasion.

With the Union human resources development ministry approving the project for Karnataka, the framework will be implemented in class nine and class 11, with funding from the central and state governments.

The central government revised its vocational training in secondary education by integrating employability education into school education in Sep 2011 and made operational within the national vocational education qualification framework.

"As we see huge potential in the state's youth, we will ensure they receive the right skills and education for a better future," Mathur said.

The scheme envisages covering a million skilled people overtime. The monetary reward is based on obtaining a certificate that will be issued by qualified assessors after passing tests.

The skills are also benchmarked to national occupational standards developed by NSDC with the support of the sector skill councils.

The NSDC was formed in 2010 under the finance ministry under the public-private partnership, with 51 percent equity held by private sector and 49 percent by the central government.

As a not-for-profit entity, the corporation includes 26 sector skill councils and 104 training partners with 2,500 training centres across 400 districts in the country.

NSDC is mandated to skill 150 million youth by 2022.