New scheme to focus on trained manpower

New Delhi: With the objective of bridging the skill gap and to provide trained manpower to the various emerging service sectors in India, the government on Tuesday launched a skill assessment framework scheme.

Skill Assessment Matrix for Vocational Advancement of Youth (SAMVAY) was launched on the occasion of National Education Day.

The scheme was launched in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee, HRD minister Smriti Irani, minority affairs minister Najma Heptulla and ministers of State for HRD Upendra Kushwaha and Ram Shankar Katheria, among others.

Irani said the scheme is based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of creating a framework to help those students who left the education system because of various reasons to get back into the system.

The credit framework will allow vertical and lateral mobility within the vocational education system and between the current education systems.

"The University Grants Commission (UGC) in its meeting took a decision on how various central universities can practise choice-based credit transfer, and I hope all our universities will implement this system in the next academic year so that all our students can seamlessly study from one university to another," she said at the launch.

The objective of the framework is to "strive towards development of skilled manpower for diversified sectors through short-term, structured job oriented courses", "prepare the youth for a vocation of their choice" and also "reduce unemployment by supplying world-class skilled manpower".

The framework defines the rules for credit allotment and follows the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).

Scheme for technologies for rural development

It also launched Unnat Bharat Abhiyan to encourage higher education institutions to work with people in rural India for identifying development challenges and evolving appropriate technologies.

Coordinated by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi, as a network of IITs and other academic and professional institutes, the scheme would help evolve appropriate technologies for rural development, with focus on water management, organic farming, renewable energy and also rural livelihood.

Schemes for women and specially-abled

The government also launched two schemes in the area of technical education -- one for differently-abled children and another for women.

The schemes, Pragati and Saksham, to be implemented by the All India Council for Technical Education, were launched here.

Pragati, which is aimed at providing assistance for advancement of girl participation in technical education, envisages selection of one girl per family, where the family income is less than Rs 6 lakh per annum, on merit in the qualifying examination to pursue technical education.

The scheme attempts to give every young woman the opportunity to further her education and prepare for a successful future.

Saksham is aimed at providing encouragement and support to specially-abled children to pursue technical education.

Under the scheme, 1,000 scholarships every year will be awarded to differently-abled students whose family income is less than Rs 6 lakh per annum. The candidates will be selected on basis of qualifying examination to pursue technical education in AICTE approved institutions from amongst such candidates.

According to the ministry, the scholarship money will ensure "students with disabilities achieve their college goals, despite learning issues, environmental challenges, or medical bills".