By Bizodisha Bureau, New Delhi, July 11, 2015 : Ahead of launching of the new National Policy for Skill Development, slated to be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 15, the union ministry of skills development and entrepreneurship [MSDE] is tying up with several ministries to skill some 40.2 crore people by 2022.

The MSDI on Friday inked an agreement with Ministry of Steel & Mines for training of its workforce. The MoU primarily aims to collectively address the growing human resource requirement in the two sectors. MSDE will implement this partnership through Directorate General of Training (DGT) and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), an official release said.

According to a report launched in 2014, adequate supply of skilled labour could pose a big challenge for the steel industry alone which will need 2.85 lakh more such workers to treble the annual capacity to 300 million tons within 10-12 years.

As per estimates by the domestic steel industry, as India increases its capacity from around 100 MT now, an additional 2.85 lakh workforce would be required, considering the productivity at 700 tons of crude steel produced per person, per year.

The Indian steel industry employs around two lakh people at present, including around 97,000 by the state owned Steel Authority of India Ltd [SAIL] itself. Factoring that 15 per cent of total manpower in a steel plant are engineers, the state-run steel firm estimates that there would be an additional requirement of 43,000 engineers in the industry by 2024-25.

Union minister of steel & mines Narendra Singh Tomar, who was present during the MoU signing ceremony said: “We will try to identify the gaps in PSUs in the steel & mines sector. We will also direct the PSUs to set aside a sum for funding skill development activities from their CSR Budget”.

Nine PSUs under the Steel Ministry and National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) will sign individual MoUs with these PSUs.

“The first such MoU will be signed between Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and NSDC on Monday. Under this MoU, 92,000 regular and 90,000 contractual workers of SAIL will be trained,” Singh said.

“Target of the government is to train 40.2 crore people by 2022. Fifty four per cent of that is in agriculture sector, that leaves us with 2.15 crore people,” MSDE minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said soon after MoU signing ceremony.

“About 40.2 crore people are already working somewhere, that has to come under the purview of Recognition of Prior Learning. Incremental requirement (of workforce by 2022) is 112 million which is being assessed and given out sector-wise by ministries,” the minister added.

Earlier on Thursday, the MSDE signed three MoUs with the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers to address the industry’s’ skilled manpower requirement.

As part of the agreement, the standards and quality assurance processes will be set to facilitate implementation of various projects. All the three departments under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers will dovetail their budget under the existing or new schemes for implementation of all the initiatives agreed under the MoUs. This would also include advocacy and marketing, training, certification and setting up of project management unit, if required, officials added.

“Signing of MoUs was a small but significant step undertaken as part of skill development campaign in the country”, Rudy said adding that presently 24 ministries have more than 70 Schemes for skill development.

However, there is no uniformity in training, the minister said. “By working together in the skill development space and after entering into the strategic partnership with different departments, the skill up-gradation will be done as per industry’s requirements,” he remarked.

Modi will also launch the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana on July 15 next, at a mega event to mark the World Youth Skills Day here. The previous National Skill Policy, which was announced in 2009 during the UPA regime, had targeted skilling 50 crore people by 2022 but the present government has revised it downwards.