India, Afghanistan look to cooperate in skill development

India and Afghanistan today discussed possible collaboration to strengthen the skill ecosystem in the neighbouring country.
An Afghanistan delegation, led by their Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, met Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy "to explore possible collaborations between the countries to strengthen the skill ecosystem of Afghanistan," an official statement said.
During the meeting, Karzai highlighted the concern of unskilled workforce and migration of trained individuals from other countries to Afghanistan.
Karzai said Afghanistan is undertaking significant reforms to structure its labour market and develop a skilled workforce for its economic development.
"In this regard, the delegation sought support from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to undertake a skill gap study of the workforce in its country to identify the potential sectors where skill development courses could be initiated," the statement said.

Rudy informed the delegation about the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) that provides the approach to skill development trainings in the country.

The Indian minister invited the delegation to nominate students from its country who would come and undertake one year skill development courses in India.
Expressing the need to build enterprises in both the countries, Rudy offered Afghanistan with a platform where students could be enrolled in entrepreneurship development courses.
The two sides highlighted the importance of such a collaboration to establish the formal skill development framework and suggested that an MoU could be signed between the two sides through which a Joint Working Group would be constituted to take things forward.