NSDC Collaborates With Global Partners To Launch Skill Impact Bond

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in collaboration with a coalition comprising HRH Prince Charles’s British Asian Trust, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, HSBC India, JSW Foundation and Dubai Cares, with FCDO (UK Government) and USAID as technical partners, on Tuesday, announced the launch of the largest impact bond for Skilling.

The Skill Impact Bond (SIB) is also the first impact bond involving public, private partners and a public-private partnership organisation, NSDC. 

The coalition has brought together a US$14.4 million fund to benefit 50,000 young people in India over four years. The target group includes 60 per cent of women and girls and to equip them with skills and vocational training and provide access to wage-employment in COVID-19 recovery sectors including retail, apparel, healthcare, and logistics.

“India’s aspirational youth require skills for the jobs that meet the demand of the industry. Core functional knowledge and competencies enhance an individual's ability to secure and retain a job and improves their potential to earn. Skill Impact Bond is a collaborative effort of National Skill Development Corporation and esteemed global organisations and people who share their vision to improve skilling outcomes in India. This landmark financial instrument applies an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy and ensures accountability which contributes to achievement of set objectives. The project has the potential to make a transformational impact especially in the lives of women,” said  Chairman of National Skill Development Corporation, and Group Chairman, Larsen & Toubro, A.M. Naik. 

The collaboration amongst global partners also aims at building the capacity of India’s skilling and TVET ecosystem through knowledge exchange and promoting good practices. 

“The UK has a strong record of addressing development challenges including through the innovative mechanism of Development Impact Bonds (DIBs). Following the success of Quality Education Impact Bond in India, the British government is partnering with the British Asian Trust (BAT) and other stakeholders to launch the Skill Impact Bond that aims to equip young Indians, especially women, to be employment-ready as we look to build back better after Covid-19," said British High Commissioner to India.

CIFF, HSBC India, JSW Foundation and Dubai Cares support the outcome fund. NSDC and MSDF are the risk investors that have committed US$4 million to provide upfront working capital to the service providers to implement the programme for the lifetime of the impact bond, in this case, four years. 

“We are leveraging our strengths, and working with governments and global philanthropies to maximise our collective impact to increase the economic participation of women. This requires innovation and out of the box thinking that the Skill Impact Bond delivers on, by focusing on outcomes and not inputs. It not only prioritises women but will ensure creativity and innovation in delivering on outcomes by addressing barriers to women’s retention in the workforce. This landmark Impact Bond for skilling, will offer key learnings that can be applied both in the national as well as global context to help solve one of the world’s toughest challenges," said CEO of CIFF, Kate Hampton. 

The training will be imparted through NSDC’s affiliated training partners, who have been reviewed and selected for their strengths. These are Apollo Medskills Ltd, Gram Tarang Employability Training Services, Learnet Skills, Magic Bus India Foundation and PanIIT Alumni Foundation. 

“Outcome-based funding models, which incentivize a more targeted focus on improving outcomes are ideally suited to driving placements in jobs as opposed to just providing the skills. This exciting new program will make a big difference by enabling young people to bridge the gap between developing meaningful skills and finding job opportunities in sectors that are in urgent need of talent. The Skill Impact Bond’s ambition is to drive meaningful improvement in skilling outcomes at scale, while also leveraging our learnings to help the government and other funders make informed policy and spending decisions," said Rahil Rangwala, Director India Programs, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.