India International Skill Centres (IISCs)

Government of India is keen to bridge the global shortage of labour force in the coming years by reaping the demographic dividend of young Indian labour force. To meet this objective, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) under the ÔÇ£Skill India MissionÔÇØ has set up India International Skill Centre (IISC) to provide skill training and certification benchmarked to international standards. In the pilot phase, IISCs were set up through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to implement two schemes namely Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PKVY) for youth seeking global mobility for jobs. As part of IISC Program, both domain skill training on international standards and Pre-Departure Orientation Training (PDOT) are being imparted to candidates.

The Pilot phase was executed and successfully completed on 02nd July, 2018 which also provided few learnings such as a) utilizing the already existing market driven methodology of overseas placement, b) enhanced understanding of Indian labour supply and overseas demand and c) ways of incentivizing to build quality in the operational value chain. Based on the above learnings and changing scenario of international labour mobility a revised policy for IISC is being proposed.

Key focus areas of the IISC policy

• Assessment and Certification on international standards as per best practices and recognition in different countries.
• IISCs to have Career Guidance and Counselling centres within them vis-├á-vis international training and employment and act as resource centres facilitating foreign employment support. The counselling centres would help students to understand the various overseas employment opportunities available and match their interest and talent with the most relevant opportunities.
• IISCs as per new policy are expected to provide only incremental skill training if found lacking in candidates.
• Opportunity to conduct PDOT will be as sponsored by MEA under PKVY, will be provided to IISCs.

Key Achievements of the IISC Pilot

• 14 centers with 593 candidates enrolled and received domain training on international standards across 9 job roles in 8 sectors
• 459 candidates assessed, and 286 candidates certified on domain skills on international standards (62% passing percentage)
• 180 candidates placed (offline data)- 63 in overseas locations (35% of total placement), 117 in domestic locations (65% of total placement)
• In terms of overseas placement, candidates were placed in UAE (26% of candidates), Oman (60% of candidates), Qatar (8% of candidates), Singapore (6% of candidates)
• Out of the total enrolled candidates in IISC, 430 candidates received 160hours of Pre Departure Orientation Training along with domain training on international standard.