NSDC and Schneider Electric Forge Cross-border Partnership under Skill India Mission

India is strengthening its play in the renewable sector and to support the requirement of skilled resources for this, the National Skill Development Corp. (NSDC) and Schneider Electric India have setup a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bangalore with a focus on power, solar and automation.

They have also set up seven Advanced Renewable Energy Training Centres in the cities of Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore, Delhi, Cuttack, Vishakhapatnam and Jaipur. Over the next year a Center of Excellence in the NCR region and 100 Labs, across the country, shall be setup in Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKK).

The Centre of Excellence will focus on training of trainers, R&D and specialised corporate programmes. This has been made possible following an MoU between NSDC and Schneider Electric formalised in 2016 with the plan of setting up labs with state-of-the-art equipment in Skill India centres across the country.

The Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) signed an agreement with the French Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research of the Government of France last year in its effort to incorporate global best practices and learn from advanced Vocational Educational systems.

This collaboration provided the much-needed impetus for partnership between NSDC and Schneider Electric in India, a key growth market for the French conglomerate with a strong presence already.

Manish Kumar, MD and CEO, National Skill Development Corp., said: “Skill India recognises the importance of training in the renewable energy sector, which is a sector with immense potential. Through this partnership, we would like to address demand mismatch with the best technical inputs from a global company like Schneider. In a small way, we also wish to contribute to both our nations’ commitment to reduce carbon emission by promoting the use of renewable energy.”

With an investment of nearly Rs. 10 crores Schneider Electric India Foundation would support the infrastructure and equipment cost for the initiatives aiming to impact the livelihood of nearly 20,000 candidates every year.

Anil Chaudhry MD and Country president, Schneider Electric India, said: “We are proud to partner with the Government of India to contribute to the skill equity of the country.  We have already trained 72,000 underprivileged youth as electricians through 260 training centres across the country and through this association we aim to further accelerate the initiative by upgrading the training infrastructure at 100 centres in India and providing market backed pedagogy.

"We are delighted to be a partner of Skill India mission of Government of India and aim to contribute to the development of the nation.”

The programme aims to attract youth who have undergone basic electrician training, obtained a diploma from ITI or have dropped out of college.  The month-long training program will be aligned to the latest modules, enabling candidates to manage applications from basic to the most complex of processes.

It will propel the growth of renewable energy sector in India by providing pool of skilled resources to the sector on one hand and providing job opportunities to the youth trained on different job roles in the sector.