National Skill Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme unveiled

Union Finance Minister Shri P Chidambaram has unveiled the National Skill Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme that will be implemented on pan-India basis. The scheme was first proposed by the Finance Minister in the last Union Budget, government will allocate Rs 1,000 crore for a scheme that will motivate the youth to acquire a vocational skill. The scheme is expected to benefit a million people in the first year of its implementation.
The scheme is branded as STAR (Standard Training Assessment and Reward) for promotional purposes.
The National Skill Development Corp will set the curriculum and standards for training in different skills and any institution or body may offer training courses. Upon completion the candidate then has to take a test conducted by authorised agencies. Upon passing the test, the candidate will be given a certificate as well as a monetary reward of an average of Rs 10,000 per candidate.
The National Skilling Mission envisages adding 500 million skilled Indians by the year 2022. While 150 million are expected to be contributed by the private sector working under National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), 350 million will be contributed by 18-odd ministries at the Centre.
National Skill Development Corporation, a body under the Ministry of Finance, is one of its kind public private partnership endeavour with 51 per cent equity held by private sector and 49 per cent by the Union Government. Formed in 2010, NSDC is a professionally run not-for-profit company that includes 22 Sector Skill Councils and 87 training partners with over 2500 training centres spread across 352 districts in the country.