With specialised training projects for women in non-traditional jobs, and reskilling and upskilling programmes for those who lost jobs amid Covid-19 and tribals, a new version of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 4.0 will be launched soon.
As per a report of The Economic Times, the Skills Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry (MSDE) is awaiting the Union cabinet approval for the new version.
It will be an improved version of the previous programmes as the pandemic has changed the industry dynamics across sectors.
PMKVY 4.0 is expected to see a greater focus on digital training while also emphasising on-the-job training component of skilling. The launch of PMKVY 4.0 has been delayed by more than six months after the pandemic stalled work on PMKVY 3.0, as a result of which the targets set under the programme have spilled over to the current fiscal year.
The report quoted Government officials saying that the Government has identified the category of workforce and specific job roles that will be the key focus this time. Further, there will be much greater focus on reskilling and upskilling to help the workforce who had lost jobs during the pandemic to get employment at the earliest.
It further adds that one focus area of PMKVY 4.0 will be to impart skills training to women for running and maintaining electric vehicles, installing solar rooftops and other jobs currently dominated by males, as the Government aims to increase the female labour force participation.
National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) will also launch special skilling projects for inclusion of tribal communities under the scheme by harnessing local resources for local markets as the idea this time is to enable excluded communities to access greater opportunities for micro-entrepreneurship through these skilling programmes.
It may be mentioned here that recently The Committee on Labour, Textiles and Skill Development, while examining the implementation of Skill Ministry’s flagship skill development scheme Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), was informed by the Skill Ministry that the automotive sector has a mammoth skill gap of 29 million for the period 2019-26.
The automotive sector is followed by apparel (skill gap: 8.6 million), management (6.5 million) furniture and fittings (4.41 million) and other sectors.