New skills policy will be transformative for India's youth: Jayant Chaudhary

Time of India

5 days ago

The ministry of
skills development
and entrepreneurship is adopting a multi-pronged approach including development of
global skills taxonomy
, creating a national registry of skills and developing a new overarching policy to guide India's
skilling mission
over the next one decade,
Jayant Chaudhary
, minister of state for skills development and entrepreneurship (independent charge) said.
'Just as the National Education Policy (NEP) has been a game changer for the education sector, the upcoming National Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Policy will be equally transformative for India's workforce,' he said on Tuesday while addressing the media on 10 years of
Skill India Mission
.
'It will redefine the way we skill, upskill, and reskill our people while preparing them to thrive and lead in an increasingly dynamic global economy,' he said. The ministry has put out the draft policy in public domain for views from the stakeholder.
According to the minister, over the past decade, schemes like the
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana
(PMKVY) have trained over 16.4 million youth, while more than 14,500 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) have been supported through reforms in quality, governance, and affiliation norms.
Elaborating on the recently approved Rs 60,000 crore ITI revamp scheme, Chaudhary said Rs 10,000 crore will come from the private sector through corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributions.
'We want to move beyond funding. We want the industry to shape the curriculum, certification, and training standards. This is how we create employable youth and make ITIs future-ready,' he said.
Chaudhary said his ministry has de-affiliated 4.5 lakh vacant seats which were vacant over the last six years and similar action is ongoing on over 99,000 more seats that have remained unutilised.
'As a result, In 2024, our ITI admission rate in 2024 increased by 11%, showing that trust is returning to the system,' he said, adding that the government is committed to quality of skills training and not just numbers.
Chaudhary said his ministry is collaborating with states to identify hubs and spoke ITIs to be developed under the Rs 60,000 crore scheme. There will be 200 hub ITIs and 800 spoke ITIs out of the over 3000 government ITIs which will be upgraded under the scheme.