FLO, the women’s wing of FICCI, today signed an MoU with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for empowering women through skill training to enhance their employability and promote entrepreneurship.  

With a primary focus on sustainable livelihood generation for women, the collaboration between the two organizations will support the empowerment of women to create sustainable economic possibilities at different levels - grassroots, medium, and senior.

Dr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC, said, “Increase of female labor force participation is a key element for the overall economic development of our country. Under Skill India Mission, we are committed to empowering women workforce through gender mainstreaming of skills and providing them with opportunities to become self-reliant. This alliance will enable better employability and livelihood opportunities for women by imparting market-relevant skill training for various job roles.”

FLO and NSDC will work towards supporting short-term training of women in various sectors such as healthcare, tourism, and hospitality among others; and will aid with domestic and overseas placements.  

FLO National President, Ms. Janabi Phookan said, “For an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, it is important to take the women along. This is the need for the hour and as a business chamber working towards the goal of inclusive growth, our focus is on the role of women in reviving the economy and making India self-reliant. FLO will be the facilitator in the process and will connect women with the relevant stakeholders, from training in specific verticals for enhancing their livelihood opportunities, increasing their self-awareness as equal partners in the nation’s growth and working towards their economic empowerment.”

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is committed to promoting skill development by catalyzing the creation of large, quality, and for-profit vocational institutions. Through direct interventions and partnerships, it enables an ecosystem focusing on quality assurance, technology, capacity-building, gender mainstreaming, and convergence in skill development.

Meanwhile, FLO plays an integral part in this process and contributes effectively towards the growth agenda of the nation. Since its inception in 1983, FLO has been working towards empowering and enabling women entrepreneurs and professionals of India and working towards economic self-reliance.

The MoU between FLO and NSDC will be under the FLO 3Cs initiative.  FLO believes in skilling, leading to livelihood generation, creating micro-entrepreneurs, and help build nano enterprises. The 3C initiative of FLO- Competency, Capacity, and Confidence building through transformational Life Skills & Technical Education Adopt ITI Programme (AITIP) will empower women with tools and knowledge that will enable them to become economically independent. This will in turn enhance the perception of women’s contribution to household income and family welfare resulting in sustainable livelihood and increasing women’s participation in household decisions. 

Given the fact that the pandemic has widely impacted women's employment at the grass-root level, skill training to recover from its effects is much needed for the empowerment of women.