NSDC to fund Pratham skilling venture

Project to Train 1.69 million youth in 10 yrs

New Delhi, October 20, 2010: The National Skill Development Corporation, a Section 25 company promoted by the Finance Ministry to catalyse private sector involvement in developing trained manpower, has decided to fund Pratham Education Foundation which aims to impart technical and soft skills to 1.69 million youth living in villages and districts over a 10-year period.

The NSDC would provide Rs 10.5 crore by way of a loan to Pratham for executing the project that will provide training in education/skill development services, hospitality, construction, organised retail, electronics/hardware, automotive-related work and agriculture.

The agreement in this regard was signed between NSDC and Pratham in New Delhi on October 19, 2010. NSDC MD & CEO Mr Dilip Chenoy and Pratham Education Foundation CEO and President, Dr. Madhav Chavan were signatories to the deal.

“It is our privilege to be associated with Pratham as it is a leader in the education space. Pratham would establish a special purpose vehicle for executing this skilling project. It is our belief that our tie-up with Pratham would encourage other organizations involved in similar ventures to also come forward and establish linkages with the National Skill Development Corporation,” said Dilip Chenoy.

“This is a major step forward for Pratham in strengthening our educational programme that seeks to promote greater skills and knowledge among the youth. It is a win-win situation all around as more skilled and knowledgeable youth from local areas give uncompensated time to teach younger children in villages while also enhancing opportunities for earning their own livelihoods through jobs or enterprises of their own,” said Dr. Chavan.

The Pratham skilling programme would begin with 500 cluster centres for imparting computer literacy/soft skills and would be scaled up to 1,000 centres by the 2nd year. Eventually, the scope of the project would expand to 1,500 centres that would train 1,50,000 youth annually.

In addition, a pilot project in six districts would combine the trainability agenda through cluster centres and residential district institutes that would provide more industry-specific and intensive training through specialised staff. Depending on the success of the pilot, the programme would be raised to 100 districts over a 5-year period capable of training 40,000 youth annually. The combined initiatives would result in 1.69 million youth being trained in 10 years.

The youth to be trained would be identified and selected by mobilization of personnel and targeted marketing campaigns. Additional students would be mobilised from existing educational programmes of Pratham, that annually engage with at least 80,000 youth, of whom many are in need of further training in skills.

Pratham would guarantee placement of 25% at the district level institute. It would also link the balance 75% youth to micro finance institutions and the un-organised sector to help them take up income-generating activities.

For More Information, Contact:

Sumali Moitra
Principal – PR & Advocacy
National Skill Development Corporation
Phone: 91-11-46560412-16
Fax: 91-11-46560417
Mobile: 91-9831030102
E-mail: sumali.moitra@nsdcindia.org

Swati Kapur
Head – Media & Communications
Pratham Education Foundation
Phone: 91-11-26716083/4161638
Mobile: 91-9891009928
E-mail: swati.kapur@pratham.org