Suryamitra Skill Development Program creates thousands of green jobs

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been implementing the Suryamitra Skill Development Program since Financial Year 2015-16 to train youth of age above 18 years as solar PV technicians.

Though government under Skill India Mission, the government is implementing more than 40 skill development programs across India, this program has an added importance as it is corollary to government’s vision of incentivising solar power production and use. India  intends to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 and the maintenance system has to be in place for a large overhaul of energy infrastructure that has already started. 

Suryamitra Skill Development Program

The program implemented through National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurugram trains youth for installation, operation and maintenance of solar power projects. The SSDP is also designed to prepare the candidates to become new entrepreneurs in the Solar Energy sector. It is a 600 hours residential skill development program.

The qualification of participants shall be- ITI / Diploma (Electrical, Electronics, Civil, Mechanical, Fitter, Instrumentation, Welder). Special emphasis is given to the persons coming from rural background, unemployed youth, women, SC/ST candidates. The candidates would be provided boarding and lodging facilities at the training center by the TP. At the end of the course, proper assessment shall be made and certificates shall be issued by Skill Council of Green Jobs. Persons with higher qualifications like a degree in any discipline or higher are strictly not eligible.

Up to June 2022, a total of 51,331 number of candidates have benefited from the skill development training provided under  Suryamitra programme, out of which 26,967 number of candidates gained employment. As there are 228 training centres all over India that impart this training, most of the states host close to 10 training institutes. Aspirants can easily get the information regarding training, placement and can easily access the facilities.

The third-party evaluation report of the Human Resource Development Program submitted in May 2021 has rated the Suryamitra program with high-level impact in terms of indicators such as scale/spread of operation, fulfilment of skill gap, work readiness of trainees and employability percentage.

More than 90% of the trainees surveyed in December 2020 reported improvements in technical know-how, improved performance in the sector, and increased job opportunities, according to an Impact Assessment Report prepared by Skill Council of Green Jobs.

In a country with fastest growing RE capacity where the domestic manufacturing of solar devices is increasing rapidly, trainees of Suryamitra Skill Development Program will find more job opportunities. Government implements many schemes to incentivise manufacturing of Solar Energy such as Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) Scheme  and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for High Efficiency Solar PV Modules.