New Delhi: The Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) signed an MoU with the IGNOU on January 17, 2022 to link vocational education and training with higher education.
As per the ministry, the MoU was signed by Dr B. K. Ray, Director (CBC), MSDE and Dr V. B. Negi, Registrar, IGNOU.
The partnership between MSDE and IGNOU primarily aims to further strengthen the vocational and technical training framework and to create more, better and accessible employment opportunities for India’s youth in the future.
As per the official statement, the trainees attached to National Skill Training Institutes (NSTI), Industrial Training Institutes (ITI), Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKK) and Jan Shikshan Sansthans (JSS) will benefit from this vocational and technical training development program.
Through this, students will be able to attain higher education, required for better livelihood opportunities and upward career growth.
“Under the partnership, 32 NSTIs, more than 3,000 Government ITIs, 500 PMKKs and nearly 300 JSS will be associated with IGNOU as Registration Centres, Examination Centres and Work Centres for hands-on training,” as stated by an official statement.
@MSDESkillIndia partners with @OfficialIGNOU to integrate skill training & higher education for trainees across 32 NSTIs, over 3000 ITIs, 500 PMKKs & nearly 300 JSS. Candidates under this initiative will get a chance to join IGNOU’s 3-year degree prog. to attain higher education pic.twitter.com/DILGVbzVMI
— Skill India (@MSDESkillIndia) January 18, 2022
The statement further added that through this collaboration, students will now be able to join the three-year degree programme of IGNOU.
There shall be a Project Steering Committee consisting of representatives from both the MSDE and IGNOU to monitor and review the progress of the programme. Initially, the MoU is for a period of 10 years subject to renewal on mutual agreement.
“This MoU is in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goal 4.4 and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 for increasing Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education including vocational education to 50 per cent by 2035,” the statement further added.
Lauding the initiative, Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, MSDE expressed that India’s young demographic dividend is the engine of India’s economic progress and therefore, needs access to resourceful pathways to receive a quality education, skill and vocational training.
He further added that the initiative is aimed towards this direction as it provides higher social and economic mobility to Indian youth with requisite qualifications.
According to Aggarwal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to aspire Indian youth and prepare them for the professional world is also aligned with this.
In its initial stage, the joint initiative will be implemented with the 32 NSTs declared as IGNOU centres. Primarily, the programme will include skills-based healthcare education, foreign language training courses, fashion designing courses and more like these.
Professor Nageshwar Rao, Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU stated that all required support shall be provided by IGNOU for the successful implementation of this programme. All of these will be done through the 21 Schools of Studies and 56 Regional Study Centres of IGNOU.
IGNOU is to provide counselling and trainer training programmes to facilitate students’ enrolments, train the staff from selected centres to handle the process carefully and mentor the management of the NSTIs, ITIs, PMKKs and JSSs.
In addition to providing the training, IGNOU will also provide self-learning material or SLM in digital form, conduct a comprehensive evaluation and end-term examinations and issue certificates to the successful students.
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