Shortage of training centres is a matter of worry for the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
“We need to train at least 2 crore people every year, but right now we’re training only 1.05 crore. We need to double our capacity and for that cooperation from all the stakeholders is needed,” said Manish Kumar, NSDC Managing Director and CEO.
He added that there are around 15,000 skill training centres in the country right now, which are inadequate for India’s size.
Currently, there are 15,079 NSDC training centres, out of which 7,655 are running grant-based programmes under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and 6,918 are running fee-based training programmes. The remaining 506 (one in each district) are multi-skill Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras.
Even when skilled, the unwillingness of people to move out of their area of residence for jobs is another challenge, said Kumar.
“So now we have also started counselling people which is a not really skilling but a softer approach that can help them in taking the right direction. Through this, our focus is to assist people as to how they should look at their jobs and get have better understanding of it,” he added.
Power, transport and logistics, and construction are some high employment generating sectors, according to NSDC.