'Govt imparting skills to youth seeking to go abroad for jobs'

About 6,000 Indian nationals are languishing in various jails abroad as they did not have the necessary skills or were sent there by unscrupulous agents, Rajya Sabha was informed today.
In order to tackle such problems, the government is making efforts to make National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) certification mandatory for Indians going to work abroad so that they do not face difficulties there, Minister of State Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy said in response to a question.
"The youth going abroad, especially to Middle Eastern countries, face difficulties due to lack of training. Nearly 6,000 Indians are languishing in various jails abroad because they did not have the necessary qualifications or wrong recruiting agents sent them there and their qualifications were not aligned with NSQF," he said in reply to a query by Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh Mohd Ali Khan.

Elaborating on the steps taken by the Government for skill development of the youth, Rudy said 100 International Skill Centres were being established, where the youth who want to work abroad will be given pre-departure training and made aware of the regulations of that country and embassy support.
"We are also making it mandatory that the youth going abroad are certified by National Skills Qualification Framework," Rudy said.
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Rudy said some state governments have collaborated with other countries for imparting skill development education to students and, as of now, eight such MoUs with Germany, United Kingdom, China, France, Japan, Qatar, Switzerland and Australia are in place.

He said the Skill Development Ministry was working both on providing employment opportunities to skilled students studying within the country, as well as those studying abroad.
Besides, efforts were also being made to help Indians get employment opportunities in other countries based on the skills acquired by them.
"The idea is to have our people get proper training and we are working to get the qualified frameworks standardised," he said.