On the completion of the second year of National Education Policy, Amit Shah has announced partnership under which 32 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTI), more than 3,000 Government Industrial Training Institutes (ITI), 500 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKK) and nearly 300 Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) will be associated with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) as registration centres, examination centres and work centres for hands on training.

According to him, the partnership aims to provide upward mobility to students and help them attain higher education and more livelihood opportunities- opportunity to join the three- years degree programme of IGNOU.

According to an official statement, the Government of India has taken new initiatives in Skill Development such as the ‘Skill Hubs’ initiative under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) which aims to create shared infrastructure with education and skilling ecosystem, catering to local economic and Vocational Education and Training (VET) needs. “Under this, higher education institutes are extending their premises as Skills Hub so as to maximise the capacity for delivering skill development courses. Under its pilot programme, close to 2000 Skill Hubs have been set up with more than 1.53 lakh candidates who have been trained till date,” the statement added.Furthermore, more than 100 National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) aligned future skill qualifications to be developed under 6 key areas including automation in industries (manufacturing/service) and industry 4.0, infrastructure connectivity (EVs and drones) electronics manufacturing and VLSI, technology infrastructure including 5G and cyber security, digital emerging technologies, indigenous R and D.

The statement further added that these qualifications range from foundation level courses to long term training. “NCVET has facilitated the development and approval of 216 NSQF aligned future skill qualifications across multiple areas spread across sectors to cater for the future skills,” it added.

• https://www.financialexpress.com/education-2/institutes-to-partner-with-ignou-to-provide-upward-mobility-to-students-says-amit-shah/2611047/