On February 13, 2021, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) launched a Two-year Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) 2021-23 programme during the event ‘Transforming Skilling through Strategic partnerships under SANKALP’.
- MGNF will be a certificate program in Public Policy and Management offered by IIMs.
- The fellowship has been rolled out under the World Bank loan assisted programme SANKALP (Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion) and will be hosted by the 9 IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management).
- MSDE will implement the fellowship in collaboration with State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs).
- IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur was taken as evaluation partners for DSDP Awards.
- The scheme will be rolled out in more than 660 districts across India.
Participating IIMs:
The 9 IIMs which are participating in the programme are IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Visakhapatnam, IIM-Udaipur, IIM Nagpur, IIM Ranchi & IIM-Jammu for national roll out of MGNF.
i.Features
- Fellows will be given a Stipend of INR 50, 000 per month for the first year & INR 60, 000 per month for the second year.
- During the first year, the programme will impart academic expertise and technical competency needed to understand the overall skill ecosystem to the fellows.
- During the Second year, the fellows will work with DSCs & help them in managing the skill development planning at district level through the mechanism of formulating District Skill Development Plans (DSDPs).
- IIM Bangalore will manage the Administration process.
ii.Pilot Project of MGNF
On March 9, 2020, MSDE launched the pilot project MGNF and trained 69 fellows working across 69 districts.
iii.MSDE’s Partnership with KILA:
- MSDE has collaborated with Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) for conducting capacity building programmes for District Officials from the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Lakshadweep.
- KILA will be responsible for designing & delivering training programs for enhancing & building the capacities of DSCs needed for effective planning of skill development programs.
iv.Improving Trainer Ecosystem:
To further improve the trainer ecosystem, the SANKALP programme will support the Training of Trainer (ToT) system in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
- Objective – To prepare TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) trainers with focus on Domain Knowledge, Pedagogical skills and industrial experience.
- Implementation agencies – Key agencies of MSDE, Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC), Indo-German Programme for Vocational Education and Training (GIZ-IGVET) & Maharashtra State Skill Development Mission.
- The programme will follow a ‘Cluster Approach’ to meet the objectives. GIZ (a German Development Agency) developed Automotive cluster in Aurangabad has been selected for the pilot project.
v.Launch of Skill Training on Gender Sensitisation:
During the event, MSDE also launched ‘Skill Training on Gender Sensitisation and Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) at the workplace’.
- Management and Entrepreneurship and Professional Skill Council (MEPSC) is the Implementation Agency for the Project.
- The six-month project will be implemented across 15 districts across 3 states (Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab) for training 1800 trainees and 240 training professionals.
SANKALP:
Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) is a programme of the Ministry of Skill Development with Loan Assistance from the World Bank.
- The main objective of the Programme is to improve the short term skill training qualitatively and quantitatively.
- It was launched on 19th January 2018 and has a tenure till March 2023.
Recent Related News:
i.On January 15, 2021, Union Minister for MSDE, Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY 3.0) 2020-21 in 600 districts across India and made available around 300 Plus Skill Courses to the youth.
ii.On December 18, 2020, MSDE virtually launched India’s 1st Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Skill Development in Power Sector at the campus of National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gwal Pahari, Gurugram, Haryana.
About Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE):
Union Minister – Mahendra Nath Pandey (Lok Sabha MP, Constituency – Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh)
Minister of State – Raj Kumar Singh (Lok Sabha MP, Constituency – Arrah, Bihar)
