Whether Skilling Centers in Smart Cities could enhance skills and thus employability

Under the aegis of “Smart Cities and Academia towards Action & Research (SAAR)” program, the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) directorate has started a joint initiative of MoHUA, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and leading Indian academic institutions of the country for impact assessment for the experiments done in the Smart Cities.

One of these experiments has been the implementation of skills centre projects, catering the needs of the local communities and helping in upgrading the lives them. These centres provide various services such as self-help group formation, livelihood resource mapping, community mobilisation, and market networking opportunities. Under SCM, 16 Skill Development Centres have been established in various cities benefitting more than 10,000 individuals. NCAER has been entrusted the task of conducting an evaluation study to explore how these centres serve as key nodes for skill development and how they provide training & educational opportunities that are in line with labour market needs.