The Kerala Government’s Additional Skills Acquisition Programme (ASAP) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Skill Development Corporation.

The agreement covers the Sector Skill Councils of Healthcare, Plumbing, Capital Goods, Automotive and Media and Entertainment. It targets all school and college-going youth in Kerala.

The Higher Education and General Education Departments of the State Government had jointly launched the Additional Skill Acquisition Programme as part of the state skill development mission to enhance the employability of students passing out of higher secondary schools, as well as arts and science colleges in the State.

The MoUs are expected to provide much-needed standardisation of courses, third-party assessment and industry approved certification through the sector skill councils.

K. M. Abraham, Additional Chief Secretary, Higher Education Department, Kerala, and Dilip Chenoy, CEO of NSDC, were present on the occasion.

Commenting on the new partnership, Chenoy said, “Kerala, traditionally known for its high quality manpower spread all over the world and strong traditional skill sets, leads the country on many development indices. The realisation that the State has a rich talent pool has made us come together and plan this initiative to develop and train employable skills in the youth of Kerala.”

He added that the ASAP team, targeted at college and school students, showed tremendous potential and that it would hopefully set benchmarks for the rest of the country.

NSDC is a public-private partnership entity with 51 per cent equity held by the private sector and the balance 49 per cent by the Ministry of Finance. NSDC is mandated to skill 150 million Indians by 2022.

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