Resource Support Agency (RSA):
The Textiles Committee is a statutory body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. The Committee was established by an Act of Parliament viz., ‘The Textiles Committee Act 1964’. The Textiles Committee has a vast network of offices in all major textile clusters and apparel production centers in India. The Ministry of Textiles, Government of India has designated the Textiles Committee as the Resource Support Agency (RSA) with the view to operate as the technical arm for maintaining quality in the process of implementation of the scheme Samarth.
Functions of RSA:
The Textiles Committee is nominated as Resource Support Agency (RSA) under the institutional mechanism of the Scheme. As per the scheme guidelines, RSA shall perform the following functions:
- To identify and finalize the skill development needs in consultation with Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) and industry.
- To standardize the course content and to develop the content.
- To specify the training centre’s infrastructure with reference to the NSQF courses.
- To standardize the admission, assessment, certification and accreditation processes in consultation with the SSCs and industry to ensure consistency and acceptability by various stakeholders.
- To empanel Assessment Agencies and to monitor their performance.
- To conduct Training of Trainers (ToTs) and Training of Assessors (ToAs) in coordination with the respective SSCs.
- To conduct the skill gap studies from time to time and build up skill database for the industry.
- To study the global scenario and best practices in skilling in the textile sector.
One of the important activities of the RSA is to undertake assessment and certification of the trainees trained under the Samarth through Third Party Assessment Agencies in line with Common Norms of MSDE.
Course & Content Development:
The training is based on National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) compliant courses in different segments of the textile sectors excluding organized sectors of Spinning & Weaving. The RSA, in consultation with the industry, will develop each course which shall be need-based to meet the highest standards and requirement of the related industry segments, including awareness about labour laws. In addition to the targeted domain specific hard skills, the program will also aim at imparting soft skills including but not limited to communication abilities, language skills, personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy, time management, teamwork and leadership traits. Only the courses which are aligned with NSQF and approved by the RSA will be offered to trainees. The normal duration of the course offered will be 300 hours per course. Once the Implementing Partners complete training, the trainees will have to be assessed by a Third Party Assessment Agency through its Accredited Assessors. The batches for assessments will be automatically allotted to the Assessment Agencies through a software program on MIS.
Assessment & Certification:
The Textiles Committee in its role as the RSA empanels Third Party Assessment Agencies to carry out the assessment of the trainees trained by approved Implementing Partners across India under समर्थ (Samarth).
A third party assessment of the trainees will be conducted by the Assessment Agencies empanelled by the RSA. Only empanelled assessors will be allowed to conduct the assessment. The result of the assessment will be uploaded on MIS on the day of assessment. In addition, the Ministry may also appoint an Observer to oversee the assessment process. Assessment Agencies will be required to ensure video recording of the entire assessment process. RSA will also conduct surprise visits for monitoring the process and quality of the assessment. In case of any discrepancy or in case the assessment process is compromised by any Assessment Agency, a penalty will be imposed on them as per the provisions of penalty matrix being proposed separately under the Assessment Protocol. After the assessment, each successful trainee will be provided with a certificate by the Ministry. For the purpose of assessment, RSA will develop an Assessment Protocol. The Assessment Protocol is a document which is a guideline for the methodology to be adopted by the Assessment Agencies for conducting assessments of trained candidates under Samarth across India. Using the Assessment Protocol, the empanelled Assessment Agency is required to undertake the assessment of trainees through Accredited Assessor as and when the batch of trained candidates get allotted to them on MIS. The Assessment Agency is expected to undertake the assessment on all India basis. The scheme aims at training 10 lakh persons (9 lakh in organized & 1 lakh in traditional sector of Jute, Silk, Handloom, Handicraft & Carpet) over a period of 3 years (2017–20). Consequently, it is expected that there will be an equal number of assessments among the above-selected segments of the textile industry during the period.