Government plans skill vouchers to make youth more skilful

NEW DELHI: The government is considering issuing skill vouchers or skill wallets to incentivise youths to undertake skilling programme of their own choice.

The vouchers can be used to pay for skill training at any of the approved skill providers, a senior government official told ET.

“The redeemable value of these vouchers/wallets will depend on the courses opted,” the official said.


This is against the existing system where trainers and employers are subsidised to impart skills training and apprenticeship.

The move is in line with the government’s plan to shift from subsidy-based system to incentive-based Skill India mission.

The official said the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship is deliberating on ways to incentivise India’s youth to take on skilling programmes and one of the ways of doing this is to issue vouchers/wallets that can be redeemed by students after the skills training is imparted. It is expected to empower the youth to opt for courses of their choices besides ensuring trainers impart quality training.

The plan is to issue 100% redeemable wallets/vouchers for skills training in sectors like construction as the starting salary earned in these sectors is generally not enough for the youth to bear the cost of training.

However, for courses like those of beautician or fashion designing where the starting salary is good, the vouchers will be partly redeemable and the remaining cost will have to be borne by the candidate.

“This will empower the youth to undertake courses of their choice and training institutes will be compelled to improve their quality of training and widen their course base to attract more youth,” the official said.

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) is of the view that enough consolidation and upgradation has happened in the last four years under the Skill India Mission, but it is now time to experiment with an altogether new model to making skilling aspirational for India’s youth.

Less than 5% of India’s workforce is formally skilled, compared to South Korea (96%), Japan (80%), Germany (75%), United Kingdom (68%) and the United States (52%), according to MSDE’s annual report for 2015-16.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in 2015 launched the Skill India Mission with a vision to make India the ‘skill capital’ of the world. The aim is to impart skills training to 400 million people by 2022 through flagship schemes like Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana and National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme. However, just 25 million youth have been imparted skill training so far under various schemes of the ministry.