NSDC X Masai - Skilling India Together

Aimed at skilling India’s youth for tech jobs, this partnership is set to benefit more than 1.5 lakh lives of students and their families over the next 5-7 years.

Masai partners with NSDC

A partnership that transforms the lives of India’s youth— that’s what we are aiming for with NSDC X Masai. Over the next 5-7 years, this partnership will benefit more than 1.5 lakh lives of students and their families.
India is a land enriched with talent in every field of work. But, for a long time, we’ve been short of proper infrastructure to tap into human potential.

“The rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. You must’ve heard of this quote a zillion times.

The World Inequality Report stated that the top 10 percent of Indians had about 96 times more income on average than the bottom 50 percent. (Source: The Print)

The question is - When will the poor get rich? The answer to that lies in equality of opportunity. When the underutilized youth of the country will get ample skill-building opportunities and become employable, the gaps will narrow down.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) India is on its way to skill and re-skill different sections of society through its various programs- ‘Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK) being one of them. These are model training centers equipped to run high-quality, industry-level courses with a focus on making the local youth employable.

NSDC also partners with private corporations to carry out skill-building initiatives. In one such initiative, NSDC has partnered with Masai, an outcome-driven education institute to work toward launching youth careers in the tech industry. This is their first collaboration with an education startup.

Ved Mani Tiwari (COO and Officiating CEO, NSDC) joining hands with Prateek Shukla (CEO, Masai)

In this article, we’ll talk about the partnership and the impact it is going to create for the untapped sections of the youth population. Let’s first get to know both these organizations in brief-

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

NSDC is a non-profit, public-private company that started on July 31, 2008.

The reason we say public-private is because it’s a partnership where the government of India holds 49% of the shares and the other 51% belongs to the private sector.

This organization is aimed at facilitating the creation of large, for-profit skilling vocational institutes for skill development in the country.

NSDC also provides funding to build scalable and profitable vocational training campaigns.

Since its inception in 2008, NSDC has trained over 3 crore people through its collaboration with 600+ training partners, and over 11000+ training centers spread across 600+ districts across the country.

Several schemes are being run, catering to different parts of the population across India, under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship(MSDE) such as-

1.            Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): The Government of India's flagship program, PMKVY, was created to encourage youth skill development and give them access to improved employment possibilities.  It focuses on enhancing the employability of youth through various training programs and assessments.

2.            Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra: Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras are training centers established under the PMKVY scheme. These centers serve as hubs for skill development activities and provide training to individuals in various vocational trades and skills. PMKKs are equipped with modern infrastructure and technology to deliver high-quality training programs to candidates, thereby empowering them to find gainful employment or become self-employed.

3.            India International Skill Centre (IISC) Network: The India International Skill Centre Network is an initiative aimed at providing international-level skill training to Indian youth. These centers collaborate with foreign institutions and organizations to offer specialized training programs in sectors with global demand, thus preparing Indian youth for international job opportunities.

4.            Technical Intern Training: This typically refers to programs where individuals, often from countries with a partnership agreement, go to another country to receive technical training or education.

5.            Seekho Aur Kamao: Seekho Aur Kamao is a skill development program in India that targets school dropouts and unemployed youth.  Seekho Aur Kamao focuses on enhancing the income-earning potential of marginalized and underprivileged sections of society.

6.            Swades: Swades (Skill development for returning migrants) is an initiative launched in India to address the skill development needs of returning migrant workers who have come back to their hometowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Masai School

On the other hand, Masai is on a mission of its own, uplifting the unemployed section of society by means of career-building tech courses.

Founded in 2019, Masai trains students to kickstart their careers in tech through in-demand courses such as web development and data analytics.

Wait! There’s more to it.

The unique part of its offering is that the students don’t need to pay anything until they get placed for a CTC of INR 5 LPA or more.

In times when education is getting more and more business-oriented, Masai is ready to invest in its students by offering them training at zero upfront fee.

There was a time when we used to envision - What if one could learn for free, and pay back after getting a job? Masai has made that a reality in India.

Thousands of youngsters get stuck in the money-education-job loop. If you need a job, you need an education. And for education you need money. With outcome-driven institutes like Masai, this can change.

Financially deprived students can learn, train, and launch their careers.

The Pay After Placement model has worked wonders, as 96% of Masai’s graduates have been placed successfully with an average salary of INR 7.5 LPA in top tech companies such as Ola, Dream11, Swiggy, Meesho, etc. as well as MNCs such as Capgemini, and GlobalLogic.

NSDC X Masai Partnership

Both these organizations with the same objectives came together in a strategic partnership on March 28th, 2022, with the agreement signed in New Delhi.

Aimed at skilling India’s youth for tech jobs, this partnership is set to benefit more than 1.5 lakh lives of students and their families over the next 5-7 years.

It looks to level the playing field for opportunity-deprived students (mostly in tier 2, tier 3 cities & towns), preparing them for the most in-demand tech jobs through skill-based learning certified by NSDC.

Their economic and educational background won’t be a hindrance to their dreams anymore.

Here's Prateek (CEO, Masai) talking about the partnership

In the words of Mr. Ved Mani Tiwari, COO and Officiating CEO, NSDC:

It is our endeavour to skill manpower from across the country and get them job-ready. To ramp up our efforts of making skilling more outcome-focused, our partnership with Masai will create an impactful framework for tech-focused skilling in India. Using their pedagogy, Masai can skill their students in software development, data analytics, and product design without any prior education or work experience in these fields. This has the potential to democratize white-collar employment opportunities for India’s youth.”

Important Plan of Action from the agreement-

  • The two organizations have already hosted one of India's biggest digital tech learning conferences named Techtonic Shift (TTS) for aspiring techies, and are planning to host more such events.
  • The NSDC & Masai partnership will also work towards creating better options for the present banking loan system, which has its own challenges in terms of accessibility and execution.

Impact of the Partnership

The partnership will surely narrow the gap between the demand and supply of skilled manpower for the Indian private sector.

India has had talent residing in every corner of the country, but could we dare say the same thing about opportunities? Simply no!

NSDC has been well on its way to reducing this gap through its innovative and career-building partnerships with big corporations.

  • It has partnered with Amazon’s 'meri saheli' initiative to conduct workshops in order to boost digital literacy in women. Meri Saheli is an initiative to uplift the women entrepreneurs and local product manufacturers in India by providing them a platform to sell their products.
  • Similarly, NSDC has also partnered with Google India for training people on mobile development.  This partnership is aimed at improving India's android application development ecosystem through a 100-hour duration course. NSDC's partner agencies provide this course, outside of the formal education system.

With such Skilling campaigns going strong, it only made sense for NSDC to create synergies with Masai and work towards the common goal.

And a partnership with a national-level organization will certainly bolster Masai's mission of up-skilling India's youth from the less affluent sections of society.

For the last 3 years, we have been emphasizing the importance of skills over fancy degrees, and opening doors for talented individuals who might not have the means to pursue expensive education. Many companies have joined hands too but there are still many more to go.

NSDC X Masai collaboration will lend more credibility to Masai grads, and more companies will join in our cause of employing personnel based on talent, and giving everyone an equal shot at career success.

Imagine what this partnership will mean to the 1.5 lakh students who dream of high-end careers, and how it will impact their families. To the youngsters in their localities who will believe that it’s all possible if they make the efforts.

And imagine how it’ll propel India’s growth when millions of spirited individuals join the tech workforce in the upcoming years.

The possibilities are endless and Masai has joined hands with NSDC to explore them all.

The Partnership's Impact

Certainly, the partnership will bridge the gap between the demand and supply of skilled workforce for the Indian private sector. Talent is abundant in every corner of India, but can we say the same about opportunities? Unfortunately, no.

NSDC has been diligently working to narrow this gap through innovative collaborations with major corporations. One such collaboration is with Amazon's 'meri saheli' initiative, which conducts workshops to enhance digital literacy among women. Meri Saheli aims to empower women entrepreneurs and local product manufacturers in India by providing them with a platform to showcase their products.

Similarly, NSDC has also joined forces with Google India to provide mobile development training. This partnership aims to enhance India's Android application development ecosystem through a 100-hour course delivered by NSDC's partner agencies outside the traditional education system.

With robust skilling campaigns in progress, it was a natural step for NSDC to synergize with Masai and pursue a common goal. This partnership with a nationally recognized organization will undoubtedly strengthen Masai's mission of upskilling India's youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

The collaboration between NSDC and Masai will enhance the credibility of Masai graduates, encouraging more companies to join our mission of hiring based on talent and providing everyone an equal opportunity for career success.

Consider the profound impact of this partnership on the 1.5 lakh students aspiring to high-end careers and their families. Think about the young individuals in their communities who will believe that achieving their dreams is possible with effort.