13-Dec-2021: Sankalp Scheme

In order to strengthen institutional mechanisms for skill development and increase access to quality and market-relevant training for youth across the country, Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) was launched on 19th January, 2018 with an implementation period till March, 2023. SANKALP is a World Bank loan assisted scheme with the present agreement between Government of India and the World Bank for $250 million (Rs. 1650 Crore). The releases(disbursement) from the World Bank to Government of India is upon achievement of the agreed Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs). SANKALP has three result areas namely (i) Institutional Strengthening at National, State and District level; (ii) Quality Assurance of skill development programmes; and (iii) Inclusion of marginalized population in skill development programmes.

The World Bank undertakes periodic implementation support missions to review the progress of the scheme. As per the aide memoire of the sixth implementation support mission conducted by the World Bank during 13-16 September, 2021, the scheme has been rated as “Satisfactory” on the overall implementation progress of the scheme while the progress towards achievement of program development objectives has been rated as “Highly Satisfactory” which is the highest rating as per the World bank rating criteria.

There are 08 DLIs for SANKALP with year-wise targets. As per the requirement of the World Bank, the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship has onboarded Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore as the Independent Verification Agency (IVA) to verify the DLI wise achievements. Till date, IVA has verified the achievements against the targets set for FY 2017-18 to FY 2019-20 and accordingly the World Bank has disbursed an amount of US$ 166.52 Million (Rs.1099 Crore approx.) to the Government of India under SANKALP.

6-Aug-2021: Sankalp Programme

Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) Scheme is a World Bank loan assisted programme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) with three key Result Areas (RA), namely (i) Institutional Strengthening at Central, State, and District level; (ii) Quality Assurance of skill development programmes; and (iii) Inclusion of marginalized population in skill development programmes. The implementation period of SANKALP is till March, 2023, and the positive outcome so far is seen in the following areas:

1. Strengthening of the District Skill Committees leading to demand-driven approach for the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).
2. District-level skill planning through District Skill Development Plans.
3. Focus on improving access to skill training for Women, SC/ST and other marginalized weaker sections of the society.

The institutions strengthened so far under SANKALP are as under:

1. State Skill Development Missions through State Incentive Grants.
2. District Skill Committees through Mahatma Gandhi National  Fellowship (MGNF) program and capacity building training.
3. Gram Panchayats by bringing skill training and certification within their ambit.
4. Sector Skill Councils by linking them up with opportunities for industry-skilled manpower connection in districts.
5. National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) being an important implementing partner of pilot projects.
6. National Instructional Media Institute (NIMI) by augmenting resources through their management of the MGNF Program.

SANKALP is a supporting programme to skill training schemes which focuses inter-alia on improvement of quality, strengthening of institutions and inclusion of weaker sections in skill training.

SANKALP has undertaken several initiatives to contribute to improvement in employability, some of which are asunder:

1. Strengthening of District Skill Committees for improved access to and demand driven skill trainings for employment.
2. Emphasis on skill certification in Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) at Gram Panchayat level for improving employment qualitatively.
3. Funded development of an IT system namely “Skill India Portal” to capture the data for skilling related activities across the country.
4. Global Skill Gap study was conducted to identify the global gaps in demand and supply of skilled manpower as well as overseas employment opportunities for skilled workers from India. The Report helped in identifying important countries of interest as destination and job roles of interest.
5. Released Rs. 273.49 Crore as State Incentive Grants to 30 States/ UTs and Rs. 13.91 Crore to aspirational districts for implementation of SANKALP Scheme in the States/UTs.
6. Improving quality of trainers in Auto sector in collaboration with Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Maharashtra State Skill Development Society (MSSDS) at Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
7. A Gender Action Plan (GAP) has been prepared for promoting inclusion of women in Short term skilling and livelihood opportunities.

13-Feb-2021: SANKALP - To promote inclusive growth and strengthen District Skill Committees

The Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship DrMahendraNath Pandey chaired a function ‘Transforming skilling through strategic partnerships under SANKALP’ and rolling out of the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) and other initiatives today.

SANKALP (Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion) is a World Bank loan assisted programme  to strengthen the district skill administration and the District Skill Committees (DSCs).

The two-year academic programme comes with an in-built component of on-ground practical experience with the district administration. The fellows under MGNF will acquire academic expertise and technical competency in understanding the overall skill ecosystem along with being attached to DSCs and help them manage the skill development planning at district level through the mechanism of formulating District Skill Development Plans (DSDPs).

With the successful launch of MGNF in the first pilot (MGNF) which had 69 fellows working across 69 districts, the Ministry is now expanding MGNF to all remaining districts in the country. For retaining the standard of academic excellence and reputation in MGNF, the Ministry is seeking academic partnership with only the IIMs and have roped in nine IIMs namely - IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Visakhapatnam, IIM-Udaipur, IIM Nagpur, IIM Ranchi and IIM-Jammu for the national roll out of MGNF.

Additionally, MSDE has partnered with Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) to conduct capacity building programmes for District officials from the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Lakshadweep. KILA is entrusted with designing and delivering the training program on different thematic areas which are aimed at enhancing and building the capacities of the district officials, for effective planning of skill development programs. KILA will organise the training and associated logistics for the training programs and also develop or customise content based on local requirements and training need assessment in the respective state/s.

To further bolster the trainer ecosystem, the SANKALP programme will also support in Training of Trainer (ToT) system in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode that a collaborative approach between industry and the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) ecosystem. Towards this, a ‘Cluster Approach’ is adopted to meet the objectives and GIZ-developed automotive cluster in Aurangabad has been selected for the pilot. A strategic partnership has been formed between key stakeholders of MSDE, Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC), Indo-German Programme for Vocational Education and Training (GIZ-IGVET) and Maharashtra State Skill Development Mission to implement the pilot project. The emphasis is on preparation of TVET trainers with focus on domain knowledge, pedagogical skills and industrial experience.

Sharing his views on these initiatives, DrMahendraNath Pandey said, “The last 6 years of Skill India have extensively focused on capacity building and creating infrastructure support for vocational training across the country. Our partnerships going forward will be more focused on strengthening the overall quality of skill training. With the recent launch of Pradhan MantriKaushalVikasYojana 3.0 and today’s academic partnerships with IIMs, IITs, GIZ-IGVET, KILA under our SANKALP scheme, together we will empower the districts ensuring demand-driven skilling. I am confident that these programs will boost our efforts to bring in a transformational change and impact to our Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi’s vision of building an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat.”

On the launch of various programs under SANKALP, the Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Praveen Kumarsaid, “All the programs launched today are aligned with our focus of strengthening quality and availability of resources at ground level to support the District Skills Committees in their skill development and training outreach. The various programs in association with leading academic, technical and state departments such as IIMs and IITs will further help in improving the training standards, fortifying capabilities of trainers and also boost more women participation across various skilling programs under PMKVY 3.0.”

MSDE has instituted the "Awards for Excellence in District Skill Development Planning (DSDP Awards)" under SANKALP in 2018. Breaking the silos that exist in skill development initiatives, MSDE continues to recognise the efforts and determination of districts through these Awards for Excellence with an aim to empower district officials through a bottom-up approach allowing them to play a crucial role in shaping policies in the future. The second edition of DSDP awards are also underway and the number of districts participating this year has more than doubled from last time with over 460 DSDPs received from across the country. This year, both IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur are being on boarded as evaluation partners for the awards.

The event also witnessed the launch of “Skill training on Gender Sensitisation and Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) at the workplace” in partnership with Management and Entrepreneurship and Professional Skill Council (MEPSC) as the Implementation Agency for the project. The six-month project will be implemented in 15 districts across 3 states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab to train 1800 trainees and 240 training professionals.

2-Aug-2019: Skill India’s SANKALP Scheme to focus on district level skilling ecosystem through seamless convergence and coordination

Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon'ble Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship reviewed the Ministry’s World Bank loan assisted “Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP)” programme at the first Program Governance Board Meeting, which is the apex body for governance of the scheme. Hon'ble Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri Raj Kumar Singh, also graced the meeting with his presence. The meeting was attended by senior officials of MSDE and six other Ministries.

It was informed that all 36 States/ UTs across country have submitted their consent for participation in SANKALP and a total of first year grants released by Ministry to 9 States (namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh). In addition to these State grants of Rs 10 lakh each also released to 117 aspirational districts under Aspirational Skilling Abhiyaan. A robust IT system namely “Skill India Portal” has also been developed under SANKALP to capture and converge skill data.

Hon’ble Minister mentioned that efforts need to be taken for strengthening the District Skilling ecosystem. He mentioned that the perception of youth towards skilling needs to be improved and suggested that District Skill Committee (DSC) should play a pivotal role in counselling youth in their districts. He also suggested that MPs can be involved to review the performance of the District Skill Committee (DSC) and the different skilling efforts in their districts. He mentioned that the training of the trainers is a key component of the ecosystem and same needs to be strengthened.

Hon'ble MoS, Shri Raj Kumar Singh, carrying forward the suggestions made by Dr. Pandey, mentioned that the skill training centres should have quality infrastructure and the certificate issued to the candidate should be valued. He further mentioned that SANKALP can assist in converging the skilling efforts across different schemes of the Ministries. He mentioned that the demand mapping of the skilling requirements across sectors and geographies needs to be ascertained.

SANKALP is an outcome-oriented centrally sponsored programme of Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) with a special focus on decentralised planning and quality improvement. It focuses on the overall skilling ecosystem covering both Central & State agencies. SANKALP aims to implement the mandate of the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM).Under SANKALP four key result areas have been identified viz: (i) Institutional Strengthening (at National, State & District level); (ii) Quality Assurance Quality Assurance of skill development programs; (iii) Inclusion of marginalised population in skill development; and (iv) Expanding Skills through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

Further, it was also informed that the Ministry has launched an award to promote skill planning at the district level, namely “District Skill Development Plan (DSDP) Awards”. Under this, 225 districts across the country participated by submitting their DSDPs. Of these, 25 districts were invited to Delhi for presenting their DSDP. The final evaluation is underway and the best DSDPs would be awarded accordingly.

13-Dec-2017: India Signs Loan Agreement with World Bank for US$ 250 Million for SANKALP

A Financing Agreement for IBRD loan of USD 250 million (equivalent) for the “Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) Project” was signed with the World Bank.

The Objective of the project is to enhance institutional mechanisms for skills development and increase access to quality and market-relevant training for the work force.

The Key result areas for the project include Institutional Strengthening at the National and State Levels for Planning, Delivering, and Monitoring High-Quality Market-Relevant Training; Improved Quality and Market Relevance of Skills Development Programs; Improved access to and completion of skills training for female trainees and other disadvantaged groups; and Expanding skills training through private-public partnerships (PPPs).

11-Oct-2017: Cabinet approves SANKALP & STRIVE Schemes to boost Skill India Mission

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved two new World Bank supported schemes of Rs. 6,655 crore - Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) and Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE). SANKALP is Rs 4,455 crore Centrally sponsored scheme including Rs. 3,300 crore loan support from World Bank whereas STRIVE is a Rs. 2,200 crore - central sector scheme, with half of the scheme outlay as World bank loan assistance. SANKALP and STRIVE are outcome focused schemes marking shift in government's implementation strategy in vocational education and training from inputs to results.

There has been a long felt need for a national architecture for promoting convergence, ensuring effective governance and regulation of skill training and catalysing industry efforts in vocational training space. The two schemes shall address this need by setting up national bodies for accreditation & certification which shall regulate accreditation and certification in both long and short term Vocational Education and Training (VET). The architecture shall help, for the first time in the history of vocational education in India, to converge the efforts of various central, state and private sector institutions thereby avoiding duplication of activities and bringing about uniformity in vocational training thus, creating better impact.

Both the schemes are aimed at institutional reforms and improving quality & market relevance of skill development training programs in long and short term VET. In past many government schemes such as Vocational Training Improvement Project (VTIP) have focussed on strengthening ITIs and over 1600 ITIs have already been modernized under the schemes. STRIVE scheme shall incentivize ITIs to improve overall performance including apprenticeship by involving SMEs, business association and industry clusters. The schemes aim to develop a robust mechanism for delivering quality skill development training by strengthening institutions such as State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), ITIs and National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) etc. The schemes shall support universalization of National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) including National Quality Assurance Framework (NQAF) across the skill development schemes of central and state governments thus ensuring standardization in skill delivery, content and training output.

The schemes shall provide the required impetus to the National Skill Development Mission, 2015 and its various sub missions. The schemes are aligned to flagship Government of India programs such as Make in India and Swachhta Abhiyan and aim at developing globally competitive workforce for domestic and overseas requirements. To this end, over 700 industry led institutions are being set up for providing job oriented skill training to lakhs of aspirants. An innovative challenge fund model has been employed to select and support proposals to set up such institutions in identified sectors and geographies. 66+ India International stalling institutions are being promoted to focus upon skill training as per global standards for overseas placements. Over 30,000 aspirants shall be trained in IISCs and get certificates from International Awarding Bodies (lABs). Upgrading 500 ITIs, as model ITIs across India and improving their industry connect, is also envisaged by ushering in reforms such as on-line examination, centralised admission, improving efficiency and transparency in the system.

National Policy of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 highlighted the need of quality assurance measures such as building a pool quality trainers and assessors. SANKALP envisages setting up of Trainers and Assessors academies with self-sustainable models. Over 50 such academies are to be set up in priority sectors. DOT, MSDE has already made significant progress in this direction by setting up a number of Institutes for Training of Trainers (IToT) in public and private sector, offering training in over 35 trades. The schemes shall leverage such institutions for training the trainers in both long & short term VET thereby bringing about convergence. Additional trainer academies shall be set up on the basis of identified sectoral and geographical gaps.

Greater decentralization in skill planning will be ensured by institutional strengthening at the State level which includes setting up of State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs) and allowing states to come up with District and State level Skill Development Plans (DSDP/SSDP) and design skill training interventions to suit the local needs. SANKALP aims at enhancement of inclusion of marginalized communities including women. Scheduled Castes (SCs), Schedule Tribes (STs) and Persons with Disabilities (PWD) to provide skill training opportunities to the underprivileged and marginalised section of the society.

The schemes will develop a skilling ecosystem that will support the country's rise in the Ease of Doing Business index by steady supply of skilled workforce to the industry. The schemes will also work towards increasing the aspirational value of skill development programs by increasing the marketability of skills, through better industry connect and quality assurance.