Just about half the candidates who get skilled land jobs

With just half of the candidates successfully landing a job after getting skilled, efforts are on to improve the placement rate for the government’s flagship Skill India Mission.

Data from the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), sourced from a Right to Information, reveals that of the 8,00,145 candidates trained through non-scheme skilling programmes in 2016-17, just 48.4 per cent or 3,87,762 candidates got jobs. Similarly in 2015-16, of the 13.55 lakh students skilled, just 46.9 per cent or 6.35 lakh got jobs.

Non-scheme skilling programmes are those that are run by training partners approved by the NSDC that may or may not receive funding. These are typically fee-based training models.

The funding guidelines for NSDC, a public-private partnership, clearly show that all the training has to be linked to “outcomes” or employment. It also provides incentives for placements to partners that achieve at least 75 per cent of the agreed training target.

The NSDC provides assistance in the form of equity, grant or loan. Its funding guidelines for 2016 note that the incentive is in the form of a reduction in the interest rate, if the partner successfully places at least 70 per cent of the trained students.

The placement rate is also low in the erstwhile STAR scheme and the new Pradhan Mantra Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) – I, although the NSDC in its response said that “placement per se is not compulsory under these schemes. The training partner will however, arrange placement assistance to candidates”.

The Ministry of Skill Development and NSDC stress it is not possible that all students getting skills training will get jobs and the focus should also be on self-employment and development of entrepreneurial abilities.

But, they are planning to keep a tighter watch on placements of candidates under its flagship schemes.

“As per the new PMKVY-II guidelines, 20 per cent of the funds will be released only if there is 50 per cent placement within three months of training. Placements will determine the grading of a vendor for future funds,” said Manish Kumar, CEO, NSDC, expressing disbelief at the placement data.

PMKVY-II, which aims to skill one crore people between 2016 and 2020, has now been partially linked to outcomes and placements. “NSDC will also check continuity through a Monthly Information System to check that placed candidates do not run away in one or two months,” Kumar added.

The NSDC, in a statement, further said that it does not have have any specific guidelines to stop funding of Training Partners on non-placement. But for PMKVY, the placement performance of a training centre will also be feeding into the grading matrix.

“If the placement performance of the centre does not match up to the minimum mandate on regular basis, it will lose its Star Grades and eventually will not be allocated target under PMKVY,” it said.

Sources said plans are also afoot to do dipstick surveys of students. “The idea is to monitor at least some of the students for three to six months after certification and periodically ask them if they have a job,” said a person familiar with the development.

While inadequate growth in employment in the country has been a point of debate for some time now, industry and experts said that efforts are on to ensure that more jobs are created. However, they argue that skilling is necessary to ensure employability.

“Is there regular monitoring of students who go for traditional higher studies? The NSDC has achieved quite a bit since its inception. Efforts are on to make skilling more outcome-oriented,” said Saugato Roy Choudhary, Director and Head (Skill Development), CII.

Sector skill councils in sectors like tourism and hospitality, retail and healthcare are understood to be asking member companies to recruit candidates who have been skilled. Industry also believes that the Labour Market Information System, that aims to connect companies with workers across the country, will also be helpful in placing skilled workforce.