PMO intervenes, seeks common skills framework

Two frameworks for one mission — skill qualification certification — has flabbergasted the Prime Minister’s Office which has asked the respective ministries, HRD and labour, to come out with a common document for the same, Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Feb 10, 2013, 01:59:40 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Two frameworks for one mission — skill qualification certification — has flabbergasted the Prime Minister’s Office which has asked the respective ministries, HRD and labour, to come out with a common document for the same.

The HRD ministry had already taken Cabinet’s approval for National Vocational Education Qualification Framework stipulating certification for different levels of education depending on the skill up-gradation.

For a two-year programme, one could get secondary degree and for five years, a graduation level certification with a flexibility to enter and exit the programme for small periods. The All India Council for Technical Education was asked to implement the framework in collaboration with the industry.

The ministry of labour also circulated its own National Vocational Qualification Framework for approval which primarily focuses on training the school dropouts for the labour intensive market. The ministry’s framework was also approved by an inter-ministerial group and was ready for Cabinet approval when the PMO intervened.

“The PMO believed that the HRD ministry’s framework was the only one but was surprised to see the second one,” a senior government official said, adding that the two ministries were not willing to recede from their turfs even a bit.

As a result, an inter-ministerial committee was formed to harmonise the two frameworks and suggest a National Skills Qualification Framework (NSDF).

To prevent any more wrangling between the two ministries, the government has decided that the Cabinet note on the new framework would be prepared by advisor to Prime Minister on skill development S Ramadorai and piloted by the Planning Commission, whose deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia also heads NSDC.

“The Cabinet's approval for the new framework would soon be sought,” an official said.

Such turf wars and state governments not fully coming on board were said to be a reason for the Centre’s skill development mission not taking off in five years since its inception.

Just one-fifth of the target for providing skills to the youth in 2012-13 would be met. The placement of trainees from NSDC recognised centres are on the decline. In north-east, where the Youth Affairs ministry launched skill training programme, the placement has been bare minimum with trainees not willing to work outside the region, officials said.

Another shortcoming of the programme highlighted at a recent meeting in Planning Commission was stress on number of trainees rather than the quality of training. Also, the training is not based on job demand surveys in the region resulting in declining placement.

The Planning Commission wants to revamp the council by turning into an authority.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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