Close on the heels of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlining his desire to have a skill development programme that focuses on job creators and job seekers, a strategic partnership in skill development and entrepreneurship has been inked between the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Wadhwani Foundation and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

Addressing 21 global fund managers and institutional investors in New Delhi on Tuesday, Modi emphasised the need to bring about new initiatives with regard to skill development and entrepreneurship that would address global talent crunch.

United efforts The collaboration between the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the Wadhwani Foundation is aimed at catalysing the government’s broad policies, said an official, adding that the intent is to scale up and fulfil the government’s vision of job creation and skill development for youth in the nation.

“The aim is to work together on programme management and specific projects in identified areas of collaboration and to take skill and entrepreneurship development to the national level,” he added.

Multi-pronged approach Specific programmes are to be created on entrepreneurship education and training within colleges, integrating skills at school and higher education levels, ensuring development of skills through multi-skill institutes and skill universities, fostering an ecosystem of mentors and investors, supporting policies for both entrepreneurship and skilling and setting up of a National Project Implementation Committee. Wadhwani Foundation is to leverage the partnership with MSDE and NSDC to upscale its existing entrepreneurship education programme in universities and colleges over the next three years.

A few central hubs along with many regional centres, each for designing, facilitating, monitoring and evaluation would be the facilitators to the project.

Filling the void In an earlier interaction with BusinessLine , Ajay Kela, CEO, Wadhwani Foundation, had noted that there existed a huge gap in skill training and education in the country. “Though companies are filling this gap by providing in-house training, companies are increasingly working with education providers to bring skill training downstream, so that job-ready students are available to hire,” he said.

Partners in progress Wadhwani Foundation has been a ‘programme manager’ and ‘knowledge partner’ with the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Some state governments have already established programmes around vocational education in schools and community colleges.

In a statement, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajiv Pratap Rudy termed strategic partnership with organisations “a big step towards scaling skilling initiatives in India.

The creation of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is a dream project of PM Modi, to bring skill development programmes currently spread across various ministries and departments, under one umbrella.”

Jobs in waiting Romesh Wadhwani, Founder and Chairman, Wadhwani Foundation, noted that the foundation would leverage its existing initiatives, National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) and Skill Development Network (SDN) and ensure entrepreneurship and skill development in India through online multimedia technologies with the government, academia and industry partnerships.

He added that the goal of creating 25 million organised-sector jobs by 2020 would go a long way in meeting the objective of combining job growth with economic growth.

Sunil Arora, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, stated that the Foundation’s NEN had already created a strong network through 600 colleges, 4,000 mentors and 3,000 faculty members.

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