The National Skill Development Corporation, (NSDC) is a one of its kind, Public Private Partnership in India, under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. It aims to promote skill development by catalyzing creation of large, quality, for-profit vocational institutions.
NSDC provides funding to build scalable, for-profit vocational training initiatives. Its mandate is also to enable support systems such as quality assurance, information systems and train the trainer academies either directly or through partnerships. NSDC acts as a catalyst in skill development by providing funding to enterprises, companies and organisations that provide skill training. It will also develop appropriate models to enhance, support and coordinate private sector initiatives. The differentiated focus for the 21 sectors under NSDC’s purview and its understanding of their viability will make every sector attractive to private investment.
NSDC was set up as part of a national skill development mission to fulfil the growing need in India for skilled manpower across sectors and narrow the existing gap between the demand and supply of skills. The Union Finance Minister announced the formation of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in his Budget Speech (2008-09): "...There is a compelling need to launch a world-class skill development programme in a mission mode that will address the challenge of imparting the skills required by a growing economy. Both the structure and the leadership of the mission must be such that the programme can be scaled up quickly to cover the whole country."