Skilling India: An Aspirational Challenge
133
some part of the course fee, pre-
sumably to ensure her/his sustained
interest in the completion of the
course. 54 per cent of the students
have not paid any amount for their
course. Even among those who paid
some money, none was aware of
what they were paying for.
•
Of the 72 per cent respondent candi-
dates who have appeared for assess-
ment, only 24 per cent candidates
received their result. Against the
Scheme requirement of results being
uploaded within two working days
of completion of the assessment, 67
per cent of candidates were waiting
for 20 days or more to receive their
results.
•
A very large number of candidates
do not even know what the STAR
scheme is. NSDC mentions that
they did not receive the funds for
promotion of the scheme to create
awareness.
•
The SDMS records the name of the
Training Partner which is the entity
approved by the concerned Sector
Skill Council and is supposed to
have trained the given individuals.
The response received from can-
didates showed that 66 per cent of
themwere being trained by an entity
that was not the training partner
recorded in the SDMS.
•
84.6 per cent candidates who report
having bank accounts are not
recorded on SDMS.
e. NSDC provided a list of 18,537 candi-
dates who are supposed to have received
the reward money. Sample from this list
showed that:
•
16 per cent of the candidates have
not even received their results.
•
Of those who had got their results,
only 54 per cent have received
certificate and 59.5 per cent have
received reward money. But of the
actual sample only half of the can-
didates received reward money.
•
Of those who received reward
money, 59.1 per cent of the candi-
dates reported receiving amount less
than
`
5,000/- whereas minimum
reward is
`
7,500 as per the Scheme.
f. Some of the responses received from
candidates point to anomalies in the
Scheme:
•
There are persons who are either
working or are already undergoing
some training of their own accord.
Their names are being added as STAR
beneficiaries and a small amount paid
to them if they pass the tests.
•
Candidates are being asked to
sign debit notes as part of the
account opening formalities—and
the reward money coming to their
accounts is being taken away by the
training providers.
g. Large-scale franchising is in evidence.
All training providers denied any sub-
franchising is taking place, though
complaints received suggest otherwise.
Training providers are supposed to be
accredited with the SSCs and NSDC
after a due process. However, permitting
accredited training partners (TPs) to
appoint franchisees raises issues about
the validity of accreditation as also the
skill level of those trained.
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana
(
PMKVY):
Government has streamlined,
revamped the STAR scheme and launched it
as the PradhanMantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana
(PMKVY). The programme will reimburse
anybody who develops a certain skill certi-
fied by a relevant ‘assessment agency’ (one
of three key pillars of the programme). If
an individual already has a skill and only
gets assessed and certified, they are reim-
bursed less—around
`
2,000. If an individual
undergoes training, too, they are reimbursed
more, an average of
`
8,000 (actual pay-
ments are on a graded scale depending on
the sector and type of the specific skill). The
training needs to be done at an approved
training partner (the second key pillar),
