India launches novel Skills on Wheels mobile lab to spread mass digital literacy

To fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of making India a digital nation and its rural youth ready for employment, several steps are being taken. One such initiative, Skills on Wheels, aims to equip youngsters in remote areas, especially women, with key digital skills to make them ready for the future. It will also prepare them for the job market by training them in a particular skill.

This innovative programme designed by Lend A Hand India, a Pune-based non-governmental organisation was launched by Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Om Birla, the Lok Sabha Speaker along with the National Skill Development Corporation and IndusInd Bank.

This Skills on Wheels is a mobile vocational lab which has been built on a truck chassis and it is equipped with audio-visual facilities, Wi-Fi, and a generator. The lab will serve as a mobile lab and an advocacy tool. Through this lab 10th and 12th Class students will be reached for skill training and career counselling. The target group of this programme is unemployed youth and school and college dropouts, especially women, among others.

Apart from equipment, this lab will also have trained vocational instructors who will provide skill training in areas like plumbing, welding, food processing, electrical wiring, mobile repairs, basic healthcare and food processing. Emphasis will be laid on digital literacy and skills through this initiative to align with India’s global competency goals.

The initiative will empower 60,000 youth over a period of five years to improve the livelihood of rural households by skilling them. Pradhan during the launch said that the customised bus with retrofitted tools will take the Skill India Mission to the remotest corners of India by travelling across its length and breadth.

It is expected that a large number of youths will take advantage of this lab and take up industry-relevant skill training to improve their theoretical and practical knowledge. This in turn will give them an opportunity to get a better livelihood.