Skills training set to be taken to doorstep of rural youth

New Delhi: The government is planning a 'Skills on Wheels' initiative to take skill training to the doorstep of rural people.

The idea is to equip rural youth, particularly women, with foundational digital skills to help them avail of the benefits they are entitled to as well as make them job- and future-ready.

In the initial phase, the skills development ministry plans to tie up with the private sector to impart training under corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and scale it up with government funding, Ved Mani Tiwari, chief executive of the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC), told ET.


"We are in talks with multiple corporate houses to take up the initiative under their CSR spend to quickly expand the programme outreach," he said. Some big companies have shown interest, he said, but refused to divulge details.

The foundational skills training will cover the usage of digital public infrastructure including Aadhaar, digilocker and UPI and the process to get a driving licence. The next level will include financial skills such as information and access to loans, credit, insurance, Cibil and EMIs. The digital skills will include usage of mobile phones to share multimedia content and location, instant messaging, downloading apps and making video. There will be training sessions to help individuals identify government benefits they are entitled to and enrol for or access those. "The move is aimed at enabling people to fully participate in the emerging economy which will dramatically improve governance," Tiwari said.