Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana | 20 Sep 2021

Why in News

Recently, the Ministry of Railways launched Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana (RKVY) under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).

Key Points

• About:
  
  • This is a skill development programme, where training will be provided to youth with a special focus on jobs that are relevant to the Railways.
  • The training will be provided in four trades viz. Electrician, Welder, Machinist and Fitter and other trades will be added by zonal railways and Production units based on regional demands and needs assessment.
  • Training will be provided to apprentices under the Apprentice Act 1961.
• Objectives:
  
  • To impart training skills to the youth in various trades to bring qualitative improvement.
  • To train 50,000 candidates over the next three years.
• Eligibility:
  
  • Candidates who are 10^th passed and between 18-35 years shall be eligible to apply. Participants in the scheme shall however have no claim to seek employment in Railways on the basis of this training.
• Significance:
  
  • The scheme will not only improve the employability of the youth but also upgrade the skills of self-employed and those who are working with contractors through reskilling and up-skilling.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

• About:
  
  • Launched in 2015, it is a flagship program of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
  • It aims to mobilize youth to take up skill training with the aim of increasing productivity and aligning the training and certification to the needs of the country.
    
    • Owing to the success of PMKVY 1.0 wherein more than 19 lakh students were trained as against the target of 24 lakh, the scheme was relaunched as PMKVY 2.0 (2016-2020) with an allocated budget of Rs. 12000 Crores that aimed to train 10 million youth by the year 2020.
    • And further PMKVY 3.0 was launched in 2021, in a bid to empower India’s youth with employable skills by making over 300 skill courses available to them. It envisages training of eight lakh candidates over a scheme period of 2020-2021 with an outlay of Rs. 948.90 crore.
• Key Components:
  
  • Short Term Training: Training as per National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) is provided to those who are either school/college dropouts or unemployed.
  • Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): An individual with a certain set of skills or with prior learning experience is assessed and certified under RPL with grade according to the NSQF.
  • Special Projects: This component ensures training in special areas and premises of government bodies and corporate. It aims to encourage training in vulnerable and marginalized groups of society.
  • Training Partners (TPs) are mandated to organize Kaushal and Rozgar Melas every six months, thus providing placement assistance to certified ones.

Source: PIB