Skill development: The challenge of skilling / up-skilling 150 million by 2022 requires both fundamental education reform across primary, secondary and higher education and significant enhancement of supplementary skill development. NSDC focuses primarily on supplementary skill development and strive to create seamless tracks within the education system.
Foster private sector initiatives
To strengthen supplementary skill development, NSDC focuses on fostering private sector led efforts that include both non-profit and for-profit initiatives with the goal of building models that are scalable.
The NSDC has adopted a differentiated approach to support private sector initiatives depending on the target segment. Based on the marketability of the skill group and income level of the student population, there are three segments across which the NSDC focuses on:
Attractive segment: Given that the market automatically works, the NSDC only plays a reactive role and support the scale-up by various players
Viable segment but with marginal economics or involving high risk/uncertainty: This is a key focus area of NSDC particularly in the near-term, with the aim being to make this segment much more attractive for private investment
Completely unviable segment: Over time, NSDC will aspire to work in this segment in collaboration with government departments and help develop innovative business models which can move players from this segment to the viable segment.
The NSDC facilitates or catalyses initiatives that can potentially have a multiplier effect as opposed to being an actual operator in this space. In doing so, it strives to involve the industry in all aspects of
skill development.
The approach is to develop partnerships with multiple stakeholders and build on current efforts, rather than undertaking too many initiatives directly, or duplicating efforts currently underway. To scale up efforts necessary to achieve the objective of skilling / up-skilling 150 million people, the NSDC strives to:
Develop ultra low cost, high-quality, innovative business models
Attract significant private investment
Ensure that its funds are largely “re-circulating”; i.e. loan or equity rather than grant
Create leverage for itself
Build a strong corpus.
Keeping this in mind, the NSDC plays three key roles: