AISECT and JSDM partner to empower youth of Jharkhand with skill-based vocational education

Jharkhand Skill Development Mission (JSDM) has embarked upon an ambitious project ‘Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Yojana’ to empower the youth of Jharkhand with skill-based vocational education. The scheme aims to provide high- quality skills training aligned with the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) and responsive to industry needs. On 23rd May, 2017, AISECT, one of the leading social enterprises in India working in the field of skill development has announced their partnership with JSDM as leading Training Service Provider (TSP) for successful execution of ‘Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Yojana’.

Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Yojana is being conducted across the state of Jharkhand. The main phase of the Project commenced in December 2016 and the three year programme is to be completed by March 2019. As a leading TSP of the Project, AISECT has been awarded a target of 2,500 in Beauty & Wellness as well as Electronics trades across 3 districts, namely Giridih, Hazaribagh and Palamu.

Speaking on the occasion,  Mr. Siddharth Chaturvedi, Director, AISECT, “Our organization has an experience of over three decades in placement linked skill development and we would like to offer our expertise to make this ambitious project of Jharkhand Skill Development Mission a grand success. That is why we have proposed to increase our target and reach in terms of districts and sectors. Since we already have a well-established network of 45 Skill Knowledge Provider Centres across all the districts of Jharkhand, we aim to utilize our existing infrastructure to expedite the execution of this project.”

As per the current mandate, AISECT targets to train 1,200 people in Giridih and 900 in Hazaribagh in Electronics or Beauty & Wellness trade, while the target for Palamu is 400 people’s training in the Beauty & Wellness trade. As per the proposal submitted to JSDM, AISECT proposes to create a cadre of skilled professionals across 6 major districts of Jharkhand, addressing the manpower requirement of a number of industries. The proposed targets include 1,225 people’s training in Construction trade, 1,050 in Retail, 2,975 in IT & ITeS, 1,400 in Agriculture, 1,050 people in Beauty & Wellness, 2,450 in Apparel industry and training of 700 people in the Electronics domain.

During the pilot phase of Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Yojana, which was conducted from December 2015 to November 2016, AISECT provided skills-based training in BFSI, B&W and Electronics sectors to 225 students across Hazaribagh and Giridih districts.

Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Yojana envisions the empowerment and employability of the youth of Jharkhand so that they can contribute towards the economic growth of their State and the country. To achieve this, efforts are being made to impart affordable skill development based training in a number of market-driven professionals. The scheme aims at employment of 70% of successful trainees through placement-linked and self-employment mechanism in various trades.

AISECT has, in the past, executed a number of skill development and capacity building programmes of the Central and State Governments across the country. This experience will be quite useful in a successful implementation of this project. Jharkhand is one of the major States that AISECT is currently focusing on. Apart from the association with JSDM, the organization has recently also set up a campus of the Bhopal-based AISECT University in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand. This is the first private University of the district and the first skills-based University of the State.