Skill certification could soon be requirement for job in armed forces

NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said a framework could be developed to incentivize skill certification as a requirement for employment in armed forces as well as for jobs by defence contractors.

The remark was made during a meeting between Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Parrikar.

The meeting was to discuss the essentiality of skill development as a vital element in development of armed forces in India, a statement by the Skill Development Ministry said.

The meeting specifically focused on leveraging the infrastructure and resources available with Defence PSUs and to utilize the spare capacity of all training facilities for civilian skill training purposes, it added.

The two ministries also discussed the possibilities of using defence offset provisions to support skilling on a large scale particularly in manufacturing sector, the release said.

It was further suggested that schools under all three armed forces, Defence PSUs and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) should introduce skill courses from class 9 onwards based on a strategically designed credit framework for lateral transfer of students from formal education to vocational education.

The Indian Armed Force, which is the third largest force in the world, retires 50,000 armed personnel every year.

"This is a huge potential workforce that could be skilled as trainers or equipped as entrepreneurs in the last year of their service," Rudy said.

Parrikar also suggested that a framework could be developed to incentivize skill certification as a requirement for employment in armed forces and encourage defense contractors to engage persons with skill certification in their contracts, the statement said.

The two ministries are now in the process of aligning the various defence sectors post retirement training benefits to Sector Skill Councils under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to ensure skilling based on the National Skill Qualification Framework.

An MoU in this regard would be signed for partnership between the two ministries soon.