Why in news?

• The Union cabinet on has approved the merger of the National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) and the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA). The merger is aimed to consolidate fragmented regulatory structures and improve the outcome of the Skill India mission.

National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET):

• The National Council for Vocational Education and Training will regulate the functioning of entities engaged in vocational education and training, both long-term and short-term, and establish minimum standards for the functioning of such entities. The primary functions of NCVET will include recognition and regulation, assessment, approval of qualifications developed by different bodies and industry governed sector skill councils. The merger would bring in accountability in skill sector that caters to nearly 15 million students at any given time. This reform will ultimately increase credibility of the skill sector and encourage greater private investment.

NCVT and NSDA:

• The NCVT was a regulator and assessment body of the long-term skill education space comprising more than 13,000 industrial training institutions.
• While the NSDA was policy formulating bodies of the skill development ministry helping it devise training and industry collaboration policy for the Skill India mission.
• The NCVT had been in existence for more than four decades as part of the directorate general of training, while the NSDA was a relatively new body that came into force in 2013.