Defence Ministry and the Wadhwani Foundation today signed an MoU for training and providing gainful employment to approximately 3 lakh ex-servicemen and their families, school students and youth in five years.
The MoU signed with Skill Development Network (SDN) Trust, an initiative of Wadhwani Foundation, envisages collaboration on technical and program management support for the skill development programmes of the MoD.
The SDN Trust is engaged in skills development-related activities and aims to drive economic growth in India through large-scale initiatives in job creation.
Speaking on the occasion Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said "Skill development is an important aspect of the overall policy of the Government of India".
Approximately 60,000 service personnel retire or are released every year at a comparatively younger age.
Directorate General Resettlement (DGR) assists service personnel (due for retirement/release in one to two years) and ex-servicemen to acquire additional skills and facilitate their resettlement through a financially viable career serving the civil society.
"Skill Development would go a long way towards supporting gainful employment of these ex-servicemen (ESM)," a statement by the MoD said.
SDN Trust will provide the programme management support to MOD in its skill development initiatives like successful roll out of National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) based skill training to ESM, supporting NSQF compliant training programmes through Ordinance Factory Boards (OFBs), Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs) and introduction of vocational education in schools run by defence forces.
"This collaboration aims to train and provide gainful employment to approximately 3,00,000 ESM and their families, school students and youth in five years starting from Financial Year 2015-16," the statement said.
SDN will provide over 1000 hours of online and e-learning modules. The MoU shall remain in force for a period of five years.
