Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana: Skills, youth, and jobs

In 2016, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) with the aim of training 400 million people by 2022.

Here’s everything you need to know about the scheme:

Idea behind the scheme

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana was designed as a skill certification program that can equip people with adequate skills required to make them self-reliant. With a unilateral certification scheme, the government pays the assessment and training fees for each candidate in order to improve the share of youth contribution in the country’s economy.

In December 2020, the third phase of PMKVY was announced with special emphasis on organizing demand-based training as well as awareness in rural regions.

Key Components

• This scheme is applicable for unemployed youth, dropouts, and any citizen with a valid PAN Card, Voter ID, or Aadhar Card.
• Short Term Training (STT) targets the job skill, personality development, and financial literacy of unemployed people as well as college dropouts. With 150-300 hours of rigorous training, it helps to develop strong fundamentals of respective skillset as well as business management.
• PMKVY has a separate distinction for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). These candidates are assigned Bridge courses in tandem with their existing skillset in order to fill knowledge gaps and get them ready for immediate project deployment.
• Special Projects under PMKVY enable any corporate or government institution to provide dedicated skillset training. However, this is reserved for special job roles not defined under National Occupational Standards.
• Kaushal and Rozgar Mela are organized every six months by Training Partners in order to test the candidate’s knowledge, personality, and aptitude for placement.

Promising Results

According to government data, 3.16 lakh people under PMKVY have successfully found a way to sustain themselves in the form of business ventures or salaried employment. Candidates trained under the Short-Term Training Program (STT) have yielded the best placement percentages with jobs in various fields such as electronics, textiles, logistics, agriculture, etc.

Furthermore, a study of PMKVY by the National Skill Development Corporation has led the government to claim that skilled workers trained under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana receive higher wages.

Interested in specific details? Let us know in the comments below.