Background

The Finance Minister in his Budget Speech of 2013 proposed a scheme to encourage skill development for youth by providing monetary rewards for successful completion of approved training programs. Excerpts from the Finance Minister’s speech are presented below:

“A large number of youth must be motivated to voluntarily join skill development programmes. I propose to ask the National Skill Development Corporation to set the curriculum and standards for training in different skills. Any institution or body may offer training courses. At the end of the training, the candidate will be required to take a test conducted by authorized certification bodies. Upon passing the test, the candidate will be given a certificate as well as a monetary reward of an average of 10,000 per candidate. Skill-trained youth will give an enormous boost to employability and productivity. On the assumption that 10,00,000 youth can be motivated, I propose to set apart 1,000 Crores for this ambitious Scheme. I hope that this will be the trigger to extend skill development to all the youth of the country.”

Objectives

The objective of this Scheme is to encourage skill development for youth by providing monetary rewards for successful completion of approved training programs. Specifically, the Scheme aims to:

• Encourage standardization in the certification process and initiate a process of creating a registry of skills
• Increase productivity of the existing workforce and align the training and certification to the needs of the country.
• Provide Monetary Awards for Skill Certification to boost employability and productivity of youth by incentivizing them for skill trainings.
• Reward candidates undergoing skill training by authorized institutions at an average monetary reward of INR 10,000 (Rupees Ten Thousand) per candidate.
• Benefit 10 lakh youth at an approximate total cost of INR 1,000 Crores.

Eligible Beneficiaries

In line with the objectives stated above, this Scheme is applicable to any candidate of Indian nationality who:

• Undergoes a skill development training in an eligible sector by an eligible training provider as defined above;
• Is certified during the span of one year from the date of launch of the scheme by approved assessment agencies as defined above;

This Scheme is currently meant only for candidates availing themselves of skill development trainings from eligible training providers.

Monetary Awards

• The banking network will be used for direct transfer of the funds to the candidates / training provider.
• Monetary Award for Certification is as follows:

  Job Role	NSQF Level	Qualifications Pack(QP) Number	Scholarship Amount (INR)
  Store Ops Assistant	Level 1	RAS/Q0101	7,500
  Cashier	Level 2	RAS/Q0102	7,500
  Trainee Associate	Level 3	RAS/Q0103	10,000
  Sales Associate	Level 4	RAS/Q0104	10,000

• In order to enable the financially disadvantaged to use the reward money to fund a part of the training cost, the training providers will allow candidates to pay some amount of the course fee after receipt of the monetary reward. At the time of the enrolment for the course, the trainee will have to pay at least 25% of the course fee, so that the candidate has a sustained interest in the completion of the course.
• A Grievance Cell for this Scheme has been set up. The first level of redressal is the Governing Council of the Retailers Association’s Skill Council of India (RASCI) and a second level of redressal would include the Governing Council members/CEO of Retailers Association’s Skill Council of India (RASCI), representatives of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and National Skill Development Agency (NSDA).

Process for availing the benefits of the Scheme

• The candidate can enroll in any course from the list of registered courses with any of the approved training providers.
• The candidate needs to intimate the training providers that he/she intends to participate in the Scheme. The details of the student shall then be entered in to the Skill Development Management System (SDMS) database along with the UID/NPR number (if neither is available, the mobile number of the candidate), and contact details. The training provider will facilitate the enrolment of the candidate in UIDAI/NPR Scheme and update the mobile number with the UID/NPR number.
• Candidates from economically disadvantaged sections will be allowed to pay initial fees equal to the difference between the training cost and the reward money they are eligible for. In such cases the candidate can authorize payment of the reward money to be directly transferred to the training provider after the candidate successfully passes the assessment. Bank account details of such candidates shall be mandatorily taken at the time of registration, or at the time of opening of account.
• After completion of the training, the candidate may get assessed by any of the approved assessment agencies.
• The details of the assessments are captured on SDMS and forwarded to RASCI electronically.
• RASCI will award a secure certificate with a QR bar code for successful completion and assessment of a course through the SDMS. The certificate will be electronically verified using a CAM device and linked to UID/NPR number of the candidate.
• If the candidate has successfully completed a course which is already being certified by agencies other than RASCI in the existing market scenario, such as Universities, State Education Boards (SEB), National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT), State Council for Vocational Training (SCVT), internationally recognized certification agencies, etc., RASCI shall work with these institutions for reward of dual certification for the course.
• The certification fees shall be paid by the candidate to the assessment agencies @ INR 1000/course.
• The award and issue of the certificate will be captured in SDMS.
• After successfully meeting all eligibility criteria as specified above, the candidate shall be eligible for the monetary reward.
• After verification of the secure certificate by the approved training provider and updation of SDMS, NSDC will instruct the bank to credit the candidate’s bank account directly. Alternately the award money may also be paid as A/C payee bank draft in the name of the beneficiary.
• where the fees have been paid in part, the training provider will be paid from the Student’s Savings Account by the bank via auto-debit.
• Once the monetary reward is given under the Scheme and the candidates’ record has been updated on SDMS, no further payment will be made using the secure certificate.

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