Year End Review 2025 : Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

• 29 Jan 2026

Source: PIB 

Why in News?  

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has released a year-end review 2025, highlighting how India’s skilling ecosystem has evolved since its inception in 2014, when millions of young Indians were entering the workforce without industry-ready skills. 

How did the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Transform India’s Skilling Ecosystem? 

• PMKVY 4.0: Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) transition into PMKVY 4.0 marked a shift from target-driven enrolments to demand-driven skilling.  
  • By December 2025, 27.08 lakh candidates had been trained across 38 sectors and 732 districts, indicating true pan-India reach.  
  • The introduction of 102 future-skill job roles and 77 customised courses shows that scale was achieved alongside relevance, particularly in Industry 4.0 and green jobs, rather than through generic training expansion. 
  • PMKVY has been converged with major flagship schemes such as PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, the Vibrant Villages Programme, the National Green Hydrogen Mission, PM-JANMAN, PM SVANidhi and the Jal Jeevan Mission, embedding skilling within core development programmes and reflecting a clear whole-of-government approach. 
• Rebuilding Vocational Education via ITI: MSDE expanded and modernised Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs)  to restore their role in workforce preparation.  The number of enrolments in ITIs rose from 9.5 lakh to over 14 lakh trainees.  
  • The launch of PM–SETU (Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs) in May 2025, marked a qualitative shift by linking ITIs to industry-led clusters  (Hub-and-spoke model) and State-specific economic strengths, addressing long-standing issues of employability and regional mismatch. 
  • The World Bank–supported STRIVE project strengthened vocational training by upgrading ITIs and  industry clusters. 
• Apprenticeships as a Scalable Employment Bridge: Under National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) apprenticeships were scaled as a core skilling pathway rather than a peripheral option.  
  • Since 2016, over 49.18 lakh apprentices have been engaged, with nearly 18 lakh engagements during FY 2024–26 alone.  
  • Women’s participation rose from 11.3% (2018–19) to 22.84% (2024–25), indicating both scale and inclusion. 
• Mainstreaming Traditional Skills: Launched in September 2023, PM Vishwakarma addressed the structural neglect of traditional artisans by integrating them into formal skilling and credit systems.  
  • By 2025, 23.66 lakh artisans across 18 traditional trades had been trained and certified.  
  • The combination of skill upgradation, toolkits and bank credit reflects a shift from cultural preservation to income-oriented skill modernisation, particularly relevant for informal and rural economies. 
• Digital Public Infrastructure: The Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH), launched in 2023, became the backbone of scalable governance.  
  • By September 2025, SIDH recorded 1.6 crore candidate registrations, 30,000+ training centres, and enabled over Rs 1,100 crore Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) across schemes.  
  • The Bharatskills Portal, launched in 2019, continues to complement SIDH as a rich online content repository, with over 75.37 lakh users and 4.44 crore hits, providing digital learning support to ITI trainees and trainers. 
  • This data indicates that digital integration allowed MSDE to expand skilling rapidly while maintaining transparency, monitoring, and fiscal control. 
• Entrepreneurship:  Recognising entrepreneurship as a key driver of job creation, MSDE trained over 12.75 lakh individuals by December 2025, leading to the creation of 26,000+ enterprises, supported by targeted initiatives such as the Swavalambini Women Entrepreneurship Programme launched in early 2025 to promote women-led enterprises.  
  • Complementing capacity-building, the Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Skill Development was revamped in 2024, expanding eligible lenders, raising loan limits to Rs 7.5 lakh, and improving guarantee coverage. 
• Jan Shikshan Sansthans: It enabled last-mile inclusion by targeting women, tribal and marginalised groups. 
  • Between 2018 and December 2025, 33.55 lakh beneficiaries were trained, with 7.08 lakh NCVET-compliant certificates issued after digital integration. 
  • This ensured that nationwide scale did not remain urban-centric, but extended to informal and vulnerable segments of the labour force. 
• Globalising Indian Skills: MSDE leveraged Government-to-Government (G2G) Agreements agreements and Skill India International Centres to position India as a global skill supplier.  
  • By November 2025, 8,313 candidates had been trained at SIICs. This reflects a shift from informal migration to regulated, skill-based global mobility, aligning domestic skills with international labour demand. 
• Strengthening Governance and Quality:  
  • NCVET (2018): Established as the apex regulator to standardise qualifications, ensure quality, and regulate vocational education under NSQF. 
  • Indian Skill Development Services (ISDS) (2017): Created to professionalise and strengthen administration of skilling schemes. 
  • SANKALP Programme (2018–2025): The Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) programme, a World Bank-supported initiative strengthened institutional capacity and decentralised skilling through district- and state-level planning. 
  • Skill gap studies: National and global skill gap studies undertaken to align training with domestic and international demand. 

National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) 

• The NCVET is the apex regulator for India’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ecosystem.  
• NCVET enforces uniform standards by regulating Awarding and Assessment Bodies, approving NSQF-aligned qualifications, and ensuring oversight and grievance redressal, with the framework anchored in National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and National Credit Framework. 
  • It subsumed the roles of the erstwhile National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) and the former National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT) to address fragmentation, inconsistent norms, and quality gaps in skilling.  
• Through the National Skill Qualification Committee, NCVET enabled future-oriented qualifications, micro-credentials and IndiaSkills standards. 
• Key Initiatives under NCVET: 
  • KaushalVerse (Digital Governance): Digitised recognition, approvals, monitoring, and grievance redressal for real-time, data-driven oversight. 
  • SOAR (Skilling for AI Readiness): Introduced foundational AI literacy for Classes 6–12 and educators through NSQF-aligned micro-credentials. 
  • Employability & Life Skills Framework: Launched a national framework to strengthen soft skills, workplace readiness, and 21st-century competencies. 
  • Apprenticeship Creditisation: Standardised apprenticeship learning outcomes and linked credits with DigiLocker and Academic Bank of Credits. 
  • Semiconductor Workforce Strategy: Developed industry-led, stackable qualifications to build a future-ready talent pipeline for semiconductors. 

Drishti Mains Question:

How has the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship shifted India’s skilling strategy from scale-centric to demand-driven outcomes

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

1. What is PMKVY 4.0 and how is it different from earlier phases?
PMKVY 4.0 focuses on demand-driven skilling, introducing future-skill job roles and customised courses aligned with industry needs rather than mere enrolment targets.

2. What role does NCVET play in India’s skilling ecosystem?
NCVET is the apex regulator that standardises qualifications, regulates Awarding and Assessment Bodies, and ensures quality assurance under NSQF, aligned with NEP 2020.

3. How has apprenticeship participation improved in recent years?
Under NAPS, over 49 lakh apprentices have been engaged since 2016, with women’s participation rising to nearly 23%, supported by DBT and simplified compliance.

4. Why is the Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) significant?
SIDH acts as a digital public infrastructure for skilling, enabling end-to-end tracking, certification, DBT, and job matching with over 1.6 crore registrations.

5. What is the importance of the PM Vishwakarma Scheme?
PM Vishwakarma integrates traditional artisans into formal skilling, credit and certification systems, shifting focus from cultural preservation to income and productivity enhancement.

UPSC Civil Services Examination Previous Year Question (PYQ)

Prelims

Q. With reference to Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, consider the following statements: (2018)

1. It is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.   
2. It, among other things, will also impart training in soft skills, entrepreneurship, and financial and digital literacy.   
3. It aims to align the competencies of the unregulated workforce of the country to the National Skill Qualification Framework.   

Which of the statements given above is/are correct? 

(a) 1 and 3 only 

(b) 2 only 

(c) 2 and 3 only 

(d) 1, 2 and 3   

Ans: (c) 

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Mains

Q. “Demographic Dividend in India will remain only theoretical unless our manpower becomes more educated, aware, skilled and creative.” What measures have been taken by the government to enhance the capacity of our population to be more productive and employable? (2016)