Shri Pranjal Yadav, IAS

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U.P. Skill Development Mission or UPSDM has seen only four springs of its birth so far. It is in fact, a child who is growing up with a vision; vision to transform state of Uttar Pradesh and India into a warehouse of skilled, trained and well groomed human resource that is not only market and industry compliant but also sufficiently attuned to counter the challenges of the competitive economy on the one hand and provide necessary resource base to start up enterprises in meeting their requirement of professionally graduated and skilled manpower on the other.
     Peter Drucker, the father of modern day management propounded that among all 4 Ms (Men, Money, Material and Market), the most crucial and worrisome is to have the right personnel on job, as the other 3 Ms are manageable by the first one itself.
     India by its demographic segregation in terms of age group of population, may be christened as a nation of youth, which is one of the key dividends of the population matrix. India now has the highest numbers of youth-males and female in the world under employable age group,
realising the potential and need of the hour, UP was the first state in India to come up with a skill development policy and U.P. Skill Development Mission was established in the year 2013 to actualize the objectives of the above policy. The UPSDM's mandate is to provide livelihood skills to the employable youth and thereafter, ensure their remunerative placement as a the part of handholding support strategy in the skill specific formal sector to enable them earn their sustenance.
     No denying, the job market has its own upheavals and uncertainties, and it is more often dictated by intrinsic dynamics of replacing labour demand with knowledge and skill based demand as explained by the Expert Group of Future Skill Needs, Ireland as well as extrinsic compulsions, like global recession, inflation, slumps and industrial unrest etc.
     What could then be the remedial option? Former U.S. President Mr. James Erl Carter Jr. wrote in his autobiography 'Why Not The Best' that there is always a place at the top. Indeed, excellence always finds a way for itself. The clue is that the quality of training matters the most. The UPSDM, therefore, does not merely roll out the trainees; it rather rolls out the trained human resource.
     The blue print for quality oriented assessment is conceived to ensure the training standards are not compromised. We have recently introduced a mechanics of third party quality assessment of training curriculum and trainers' performance for better objectivity. The UPSDM has empanelled training partners drawn from both government as well as private sector to impart training in 654 trades spanning in 53 sectors. In addition, flexi MoUs are also signed with leading industrial houses viz. Raymonds, Café Coffee Day, L&T, Karvi and Maruti Udyog Limited, Lava, Intex Mobil etc. to improve the quality of training and increase the absorption avenues for the trainees opportunities are also being looked out to negotiate oversees placement of the trainees. Besides some leading placement agencies viz Mera Hunar, Monster.com etc. are also roped in to explore job market for the trainees. Certification by National Skill Development Council (NSDC) and National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) authenticates the possession of requisite standard of skills by the trainees who pass out the training courses successfully. It characterizes as one of the important breakdown activity under value chain concept of Michel Porter (1985).
     The Mission archive confirms that it has facilitated training of about 4 lac youth in just 4 years of its existence under different trades and more than 3 lacs youth are targeted to be trained in different vocational courses in the financial year 2017-2018.
      The Mission as a mark of recognition of its commendable performance received no. of awards during these years Sri. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Hon'ble Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Government of India awarded with Best State in Skill Development Award in the year 2015-16 in a conference organized by ASSOCHAM while Europe India Foundation for Excellence, Brussels conferred upon the State "The Best State in Empowering Youth through Skill Development Award" at the UNESCO headquarter, Paris in 2016-17.
     The Government of Jharkhand also honored the State with the Leadership Award for its innovative strategies in skilling ecosystem.
     However, we are neither complacent nor contended. Every honour or felicitation is a clarion call for more concerted and committed efforts.
Arise, awake and move forward, till the destination is achieved, says an upanishadic verse, and so we are relentlessly endeavoring too.

Best Wishes,

Pranjal Yadav
Mission Director