Skill development and sustainability among micro and small units has become the focus for the MSME Ministry. Thus the Ministry is planning to establish more than 50 new training centres for MSME units.
MSME secretary Uday Kumar Varma said that there is a necessity to set up around 52 tool rooms (training centres) across each state for upgrading skills of workforce in the MSME sector. The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) targets to impart training on skill development to 150 million individuals by 2022, of which 15 million need to be skilled through the MSME Ministry. Tool rooms are independent, profit-making and self-sustaining bodies, which are funded by the government and provide training to nearly 40,000 people annually.
At present, India has 10 tool rooms or training centres, dedicated to train people working in the MSME sector. These tool rooms are located in Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneswar, and Kolkata. Shortage of skilled workforce is a major problem with the MSME sector. The Ministry is currently training nearly one million individuals. The Ministry is also finalising the Twelfth Five-Year Plan document, where the contributions of the MSME sector including 26 million enterprises are sought to be capitalized on.