By The Hindu Bureau

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The State Cabinet on Thursday approved the Karnataka State Skill Development Policy 2025-32 with requirement of a whopping ₹4,432.5 crore, during the seven-year period.

Its vision is to position Karnataka as a premier hub for skilled workforce and a $1 trillion economy by 2032.

The policy envisions “transforming the State into a hub for skill development, fostering an inclusive and future-ready workforce that meets the demands of a rapidly evolving economy.”

Its mission is focused on empowering youth and marginalised communities through access to industry-aligned skills, promoting continuous learning, and enhancing collaboration between industry and educational institutions.

The comprehensive approach is aligned with the Skill India Mission aimed to bridge regional disparities and support sustainable economic growth.

The policy objectives are to focus on lifelong learning, reskilling, and upskilling to keep pace with changing technologies and industry needs; integration of vocational education within schools, higher education, and universities through credit-based programmes.

It laid strong emphasis on industry collaboration, including apprenticeships, industry-led training, and ITI adoption.

It aims to leverage digital technologies and Al-driven tools for training, assessment, and career guidance through a unified digital portal.

Funding need

The funding needed for implementing the policy is ₹4,432.5 crore, including ₹1,386 crore from the Asian Development Bank. It has been decided that ₹410 crore would be raised from projects in the PPP model and ₹904 crore from projects already announced in previous State Budgets (ongoing projects with Budget from State or organisations like KKRDB, KMERC, NABARD); ₹807 crore from continuing schemes under the department, funded irrespective of policy provisions; ₹38.5 crore from department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, and ₹887 crore from the Department of Skill Development.

What CAG report said

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report tabled in the Monsoon Session of the legislature said that only 18% of the trained candidates under the Karnataka Skill Development Corporation (KSDC) secured placements post-training, falling short of the mandated 70%.

The Skill Mission was unrealistic in its target during 2017-23, and only 1,15,822 individuals were trained against the target of five lakh youth per year during 2017-2023, the report said.

A flagship training scheme of the Department of Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, it was launched in 2017 to train five lakh youth annually.