Skilling is of key importance in stimulating a sustainable development process and can make a contribution in facilitating the transition from an informal to a formal economy. Skilling is to create a workforce empowered with the necessary and continuously upgraded skills, knowledge, and internationally recognized qualifications to gain access to decent employment and ensure India’s competitiveness in the dynamic global market. It aims at increasing the productivity and employability of the workforce (wage and self-employed) both in the organized and the unorganized sectors.

The Ministry is responsible for co-ordination of all skill development efforts across the country, removal of disconnect between demand and supply of skilled manpower, building the vocational and technical training framework, skill up-gradation, building of new skills, and innovative thinking not only for existing jobs but also jobs that are to be created.

The Ministry aims to Skill on a large Scale with Speed and high Standards in order to achieve its vision of a 'Skill India Portal'. It is aided in these initiatives by its functional arms – National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) and 33 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) as well as 187 training partners registered with NSDC. The Ministry also intends to work with the existing network of skill development centres, universities and other alliances in the field. Further, collaborations with relevant Central Ministries, State governments, international organizations, industry and NGOs have been initiated for multi-level engagement and more impactful implementation of skill development efforts.

NSDC is a first-of-its-kind Public Private Partnership (PPP) in India set up to facilitate the development and upgrading of the skills of the growing Indian workforce through skill training programs. A large part of the organization’s efforts are directed at the private sector and towards developing the skills in the unorganized sector in India. NSDC supports skill development efforts, especially in the unorganized sector in India by funding skill training and development programmes. It also engages in advocacy and training programmes, in-depth research to discover skill gaps in the Indian workforce, and developing accreditation norms.

NSDC provides funding to build scalable, for-profit vocational training initiatives. Its mandate is also to enable support systems such as quality assurance, information systems and train the trainer academies either directly or through partnership. NSDC acts as a catalyst in skill development by providing funding to enterprises, companies and organizations that provide skill training. It will also develop appropriate models to enhance, support and coordinate private sector initiatives. The differentiated focus for the 21 sectors under NSDC’s purview and its understanding of their viability will make every sector attractive to private investment

Government of India, Ministry of Labour & Employment launched a Modular Employable Skills (MES) under Skill Development Initiative (SDI) Scheme through Directorate General of Employment & Training in May 2007. Modular Employable Skills (MES) scheme, under the aegis of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, aims to provide vocational training using demand driven short term training courses created in consultation with the industry. MES courses can have duration of as low as go hours. Training fees of candidates successfully complete the training are refunded by the government. Central Government will facilitate and promote training while industry, private sector and state government will train the persons. It has flexible delivery mechanism (part time, weekends, full time, onsite/offsite) to suit needs of various target groups.

MES provides Vocational Training to School Leavers, Existing Workers, ITI graduates etc., to improve their employability by optimally utilizing the infrastructure available in Govt., private institutions and the Industry. Existing skills of the persons can also be tested and certified under this scheme. MES builds capacity in the area of development of competency standards, course curricula, learning material and assessment standards in the country

Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) are national partnership organizations that bring together all the stake holders – industry, labor and the academia for the purpose of workforce development for particular industry sectors. The National Skill Policy 2009 outlines the roles of SSCs. The SSCs play a significant role in setting up and determining skills, competency standards and qualifications for various jobs, which can be used by companies to assess employee performance and skill development needs. These can also be used to prepare training programmes and job profiles.

The SSCs forecast changes in the labor market and will enable the standardization of affiliation and accreditation processes. The SSCs also carry out affiliation of training partners that wish to partner NSDC but do have the scale to be a direct partner of NSDC. The SSCs also work with assessors and assessment agencies to certify the candidates and maintain a national skill register for their sector.

Vocational Training Provider - The training under the SDI scheme will be provided by various VTPs under Central Government, State Governments, Public and Private Sector, and Industrial establishments. VTPs will provide counseling & vocational guidance, training facilities as per norms, impart good quality training, post-training support to trainees in getting employment, maintain database on trainees trained and the outcome of the training. They will track the trainees for three years or till they get gainfully employed.

VTP will also be required to have close networking with the industry for the immediate placement of the trainees. They will also maintain accounts, ensure proper utilization of funds and submit reports and utilization certificates as per the prescribed schedule. They will follow various instructions issued by the committees or any other authority from time to time. They should utilize funds received from NSDC for meeting various expenses for imparting training and providing post-training support services. They should also have powers to reimburse training fee to successful trainees out of funds received from NSDC.

National Occupational Standards (NOS) or Occupational Standards (OS) defines one key function in a job role. NOS specifies the standard of performance an individual must achieve when carrying out a function in the workplace. These Occupational Standards are combined to a set, which is called Qualification Pack (QP).

Qualification Pack certifies a person for a specific job role. Each Qualification Pack also contains NVEQF Level, which will theoretically make it possible to drive competency based training for every Entry Level job role in the IT-BPM industry. These packs are marked with a NVEQF level, such as level 7. The Qualification Packs help in both the creation of curriculum and assessments.