Skill India mission empowers women with 10 initiatives in skill development and entrepreneurship

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) have been implementing several initiatives to achieve women empowerment through skill development. To increase the women participation in workforce, Skill India Mission aims to empower women with 10 initiatives in skill development and entrepreneurship

Following initiatives are launched to facilitate skill development among women and spur entrepreneurship

1. Long Term Skill Development Training via Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs)

Through a wide network of 15,042 ITIs, spanning the country, over 22.82 lakh candidates have been enrolled (in the trades of one year and two-year duration) and special focus is laid on enrolment of women. There is nearly 97% increase in admissions in 2018 as compared to 2014 to reach 173,105 women trainees from 87,799.

18 National Skill Training Institutes (for Women) are imparting skill training exclusively for women. Further, exclusive batches to provide basic/ theoretical training to women have been started under National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) in all Centrally Funded Institutes (CFIs). The NSTIs (W) organize NCVT approved skill training programmes under Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS) and Craft Instructors’ Training Scheme (CITS) in several areas such as Office Management, Electronics, Fashion Design & Technology, Computer Aided Embroidery & Designing etc. We are also seeing active participation from women in new age job roles aligned to Industry 4.0 like those in Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing, Data Analytics etc. and also across in skills like welding, automobile mechanics etc.

2. Short Term Skill Development Training

The flagship program of the Ministry, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojan strives to promote increased participation of women in the workforce through appropriate skilling and gender mainstreaming of skills. Close to 50% of the candidates enrolled and trained under PMKVY are women; out of the total 56 lakh candidates who have benefited from the scheme. The efforts are made to continually revise job roles taking into account market demand and are cognizant of industry requirements for female professionals. Programs under the Skill India Mission are designed to not only train women in relevant skills that are sought by employers, they are also sensitive to their needs by providing safe transport, flexible schedules and childcare support

While women dominate sectors such as Apparel, Beauty & Wellness and Healthcare, there is significant presence in non-traditional roles such as those in Electronics and Hardware, with a large number of female enrolments (1.03 lakh) under the Field Technician – Computing and Peripherals job role in this sector.

Skill India has partnered with Government Initiatives like Ayushman Bharat, Swachh Bharat Mission, Smart City Mission etc. to align skill development efforts to these national missions by ensuring a steady flow of skilled workforce. These programs are also generating lakhs of jobs, particularly for women by creation of job roles like caregiver, midwives, nurses, diabetes educators etc.

 3. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) more than 4 lakh women candidates have been oriented in different skill areas, recognizing their existing skills through a formal certificate and giving them a means to earn better livelihood.

4. Apprenticeship Training

The comprehensive reforms that have been made to the Apprenticeship Act 1961 has opened up opportunities for apprentices in the service sector. Skill India through NSDC, is conducting focused pilot program with UNDP and Society of Development Alternatives (DA), to benefit more than 50,000 women in 7 states/UTs over a duration of 15 months.

To further promote Apprenticeship training, Directorate General of Training, a wing under MSDE, is undertaking gender study to determine constraints for women in participating in ITI and Apprenticeship training and their transition into the labor market.

5. Policy Interventions

The National Skill Development and Policy focuses on inclusive skill development with the objective of increased women participation for better economic productivity. To achieve this, emphasis has been laid on creating additional infrastructure both for training and apprenticeship for women; flexible training delivery mechanisms such mobile training units, flexible afternoon batches along with on local need-based training to accommodate women; and ensuring safe and gender sensitive training environment, employment of women trainers, equity in remuneration, and complaint redressal mechanism. The skill gap reports have also identified sectors which are likely to have a higher percentage of women in the workforce.

Besides these, the Common Norms approved by Ministry for various skill development programs provide special support for women candidates such as provision of boarding and lodging facilities; reimbursement of transportation cost for non-residential training programs and post placement stipends to enable new trainees to settle.

6. Special Women-Centric Projects

NSDC, through its training partners such as Mann Deshi Foundation, Shri Mahila Sewa Sahkari Bank Limited and Sri Sarada Math RasikBhita are working exclusively on skill development of women, especially in rural areas. The training constitutes imparting digital, accounting and entrepreneurial skills so as to facilitate the possibility of setting up their own business. NSDC in collaboration with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation is also driving skill development of workers for Swachh Bharat Mission and has roles such as mason training for twin pit toilets and gobar gas (bio fuel), which has seen encouraging participation from women.

7. Partnerships with Private & Non-Government Organizations to boost skill development

Some of the collaborative efforts with private players include organizations such as Airbnb to support homestay services by providing training in hospitality and tourism sectors. Under a PMKVY project, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is targeting remote villages to foster women empowerment through skill development and creation of occupational opportunities. The project is focused towards vulnerable and marginalized groups and tribal population. With over 50% participation from women, the project has been implemented in in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.Partnership with Humara Bachpan Trust in Odisha aims to give employment & entrepreneurship opportunities to about 1500 women belonging to the economically disadvantaged sections. Partnership with Industree Crafts Foundation, a formation of producer group companies is helping in training and supporting women targeted to benefit 1500 women in Karnataka. Partnership with Youthnet Home Stay Project in North East (Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh) is improving the quality of homestays and providing a source of income to 200 residents

8. Projects in Pradhan Mantri Mahila Kaushal Kendra (PMMKK)

Recently, more than 6000 training targets have been allocated to train women in 4 PMMKKs. The crèche facility is also available at these centers so as to facilitate the new mothers to take up skill training. Trainings are being conducted for Self Employed Tailor, Beauty Therapist, Customer Care Executive, Hair Stylist, Yoga Trainer etc

9 Future jobs and industry-oriented courses

Aligned to NSQF, there are nearly 450 job roles which are concentrated towards skill training of women. Skill India is encouraging participation of women in new-age job roles aligned to Industry 4.0 such as Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing, Data Analytics etc. and has witnessed increased participation of women in hard skills like welding, automobile mechanics etc. Our programs have sparked interest in young girls to train themselves in skills for job roles in unconventional and new-age areas like CNC mechanics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, that are in line with the future of jobs. For instance, In the past two years alone, as many as 892 females were trained as automation specialists while about 500 were trained as CNC Operators. Skill India has also partnered with global industry leaders like SAP, Adobe, IBM to create skill development programs aligned to the needs of Industry 4.0.

 10. Entrepreneurial Initiatives

MSDE is committed to facilitate growth of women entrepreneurs in the country. NIESBUD under the MSDE has designed Entrepreneurship Development Programs for the rural women with the objective to inculcate entrepreneurial values, attitude and motivation among the Rural women to take up challenges to set up an enterprise/Group Enterprises. The Livelihood Business Incubation (LB I) approach is also used to promote woman entrepreneurs by the Institute.

Through National Entrepreneurship Awards, we recognized entrepreneurial journeys of women over and above the three awards specially targeted at them. Out of 33 companies which received awards, 12 were solely owned by women and in another two a woman was a co-founder.

Linkage of Skill India and Mudra Yojana has been achieved. Since, women comprise about 78% of the beneficiaries of Mudra Yojana, this linkage will further give boost to aspiring women entrepreneurs.