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Bengaluru: Karnataka comes up 11th among all the states and union territories in terms of the number of candidates trained under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), a scheme under the Skill India Mission, since its inception from 2015.
As of December 31, 2024, 5.74 youth from the state have trained under the scheme, according to a reply by the Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Jayant Chaudhary in Lok Sabha on Monday.
States that have outdone Karnataka on this front include Uttar Pradesh (which stands first with 24.13 lakh candidates), Tamil Nadu (at 5th with 8.68 lakhs trained) and West Bengal (9th with 6.42 lakh trained). A total of 1.6 crore candidates have been trained since 2015, and Karnataka accounts for only 3.58% of them.
Placements or self-employment were tracked in the short-term training component in the first three editions of the PMKVY Scheme (implemented from FY16 to FY22). This saw 24.43 lakh candidates placed in India, according to another reply by Chaudhary on Monday. Again Uttar Pradesh saw the highest number of candidates reported placed at 3.40 lakh. As for Karnataka, it performed worse on this count, ranking 13th with 74,225 candidates placed (or 3.04%).
The fourth edition
PMKVY 4.0, which started from FY23, saw focus shifted to empowering trained candidates to choose their varied career path and make career choices, as per Chaudhary’s statement in Parliament.
“As the PMKVY is demand driven, training centres (TCs) are empanelled/engaged on need basis to impart the training across the country. The PMKVY 4.0 has focused on introducing courses relevant to emerging technology and industry 4.0, such as AI, robotics, green hydrogen, environmental sustainability, mechatronics, Internet of things (IoT), 3D printing, drone technology, etc,” said Chaudhary in his reply.
In PMKVY 4.0, 10,449 candidates have been trained for ‘futuristic roles’ like AI and robotics. From Karnataka, maximum candidates came in from Bidar (2,273), followed by Bengaluru Urban (1,648) and Kalaburgi (1,275).
To date, the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) has approved around 540 futuristic job roles in various sectors, including emerging sectors like IT and green technologies, he added.
Only 27 such roles, such as drone manufacturing, assembly technicians, IoT hardware analyst, additive manufacturing (3D printing), AI - machine learning engineer, came Karnataka’s way.