India Skills Online is an initiative of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The ministry recently launched an online platform for imparting skills with an aim to reach millions of skilled aspirants and job seekers across the nation and also to integrate the digital divide in India.
The website is a part of the government’s Skill India campaign, focuses to provide vocational training to 1 crore workers in the next 4 years. It will provide with the free online courses to the skill seekers registered for the skill training schemes which can also be downloaded as mobile applications.
For enrollment, a candidate will be required to pay the training fee and assessment fee. Fees will be specified by the Training Center. Affiliated training partners may allow candidates to undertake the training without paying the training fee. The candidate will, however, be required to pay the nominal assessment fee at the time of enrollment. Upon successful completion of training and assessment, candidates will be offered a government certification and monetary reward.
Apart from domain-specific qualification pack courses, the web portal will also offer courses on soft skills, languages, culture, digital literacy and entrepreneurship to its users. Expanding the reach and effectiveness of the skilling initiative is one of the significant objectives of India Skills Online.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Skill India mission in 2015 with an aim to train over 40 crore youths in India by the year 2022. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the first edition of ‘India Skills’ competition on 15 July, 2016 which happens to be the World Youth Skills Day.
“With the introduction of online skill learning, the whole nation potentially becomes a classroom. The audio-video graphical illustrations format will help internalise the concepts for the skill-seekers, faster and longer,” the official statement said.
“Skill India resolves to bridge the digital divide by providing basic digital literacy opportunities to all skill-seekers. It will make them more aware, and better suited for the work environment of the day,” the ministry added.
