A short vocational course ends with a certificate; its employment test comes afterwards. Under PMKVY 4.0, the government reported that 27.24 lakh candidates had been trained across 38 sectors by 31 March 2026. Courses ran through a network including schools, colleges and Industrial Training Institutes, extending the programme beyond standalone training centres. [2]
PMKVY is one part of Skill India, launched on 15 July 2015 with a national mission and a new policy for skill development and entrepreneurship. The initiative sought to connect training with the needs of employers and people seeking work. Its delivery record requires separate measures for training, assessment, certification and employment. [1] [4]
Building on older training institutions
Vocational training did not begin in 2015. The Craftsmen Training Scheme dates to 1950, while Jan Shikshan Sansthan began as Shramik Vidyapeeth in 1967. ITIs and community institutions supplied an existing base on which the later mission could build. [2]
PMKVY added publicly supported short-term courses and Recognition of Prior Learning. The latter recognises and upgrades skills people already possess, including skills acquired informally. A prior-learning certificate therefore cannot automatically be counted as a person newly trained from the beginning. [4]
The mission also includes apprenticeships. The April 2026 government account reported around 12.35 lakh apprentices engaged during 2025–26 under NAPS, alongside about 6.42 lakh completing on-the-job training that year. Engagement and completion are separate flows; neither is a count of permanent jobs created. [2]
What the audit found
The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report, tabled in December 2025, examined the first three PMKVY phases launched during 2015–22. It included work at the ministry, the National Skill Development Corporation and eight selected states. [3]
In short-term training and special projects, the audit recorded 56.14 lakh certified candidates and 23.18 lakh reported placements—about 41%. That denominator excludes Recognition of Prior Learning. It also predates PMKVY 4.0, so the rate cannot fairly be presented as a result for every person covered by Skill India. [3]
The audit found incorrect placement documents submitted by training partners in Kerala. Such findings matter because a reported placement needs verification before it can stand for a real job. They do not establish that every placement in the national total was false. [3]
A changed employment record
A February 2026 parliamentary reply gave a later administrative total of 23,99,524 reported placements for 2015–16 through 2021–22. It said placements had been tracked in the short-term component of the first three versions. For PMKVY 4.0, it described an emphasis on industry-relevant courses and embedded on-the-job training rather than continuing that earlier placement series. [4]
The different totals should stay attached to their own records. Neither permits a new placement rate to be calculated by dividing old reported jobs by the latest training count. [3] [4]
The February 2025 restructuring brought PMKVY 4.0, apprenticeship promotion and JSS into a composite Skill India Programme with an ₹8,800 crore outlay for 2022–23 to 2025–26. That approval funded a set of pathways; for the trainee, their value still depends on whether a recognised skill leads to useful work and sustained earnings. [5]