The Ministry for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has been formed to focus on enhancing employability of the youth through skill development. The Ministry is responsible for co-ordination of all skill development efforts across the country, removal of disconnect between demand and supply of skilled manpower, building the vocational and technical training framework, skill up-gradation, building of new skills, and innovative thinking not only for existing jobs but also jobs that are to be created. The Ministry aims to Skill on a large Scale with Speed and high Standards in order to achieve its vision of a ‘Skilled India’.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is a one of its kind, Public Private Partnership in India, under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE). It aims to promote skill development by catalyzing and creation of large, quality, for-profit vocational institutions. NSDC was set up as part of a National Skill Development Mission to fulfill the growing need in India for skilled manpower across sectors and narrow the existing gap between the demand and supply of skills.

Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) are industry-led bodies, who would be responsible for the defining the skilling needs, concept, processes, certification, accreditation of their respective industry sectors. The SSCs prescribe the National Occupation Standards (NOS) and Qualification Pack (QPs) for the job roles relevant to their industry and ensure that these are in accordance with the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).

Inspection Agency(IA) or Third Party Inspection Agency is an independent body responsible for evaluating the required parameters set for Training Centres (TC) to conduct the training. IA visits the TC to determine if it meets the Accreditation Standards.

Skill Management and AccReditation of Training Centres (SMART) is an Information Technology (IT) initiative to create synergies among the stakeholders of the Skill Ecosystem and streamline the skill development initiatives. SMART provides a single window application that focusses on the Accreditation, Affiliation and Continuous Monitoring of the Training Centres (TC) in the Skill Ecosystem and intends to address the important issues like evaluating skill providers in an objective manner, fostering excellence in TCs, and enabling trainees to make informed choices with regard to TCs. SMART facilitates standardized and effective processes with respect to Accreditation, Affiliation, and Continuous Monitoring of the TCs, which shall play a significant role in achieving the desired quality standards across various schemes.

Centre Accreditation is a process that helps in effective management and delivery of the competency-based training aimed at overall development of the trainees. The Centre Accreditation ensures that the Training Centre (TC) has met prescribed qualitative standards, which have been pre-set by the respective SSCs. It involves a combined mechanism of self-evaluation by the TCs and an external evaluation by a Third Party Inspection Agency to determine if the prescribed qualitative standards are met by the TC.

Your Training Provider needs to be registered first on SMART. A Training Centre can apply for Accreditation by: Filling the online Centre Accreditation Application Form (CAAF) on SMART, wherein TC needs to provide details of the required parameters, such as Infrastructure, Job Roles, Tools and Equipment. Before you begin the form filling process, it is recommended that you download the static format of CAAF to understand the details/ documents required for successful submission of CAAF. Uploading supporting evidences, such as geo-tagged/time stamped data and pictures of the equipment/tools/machinery, by using the mobile application based technology Making online payment of the annual Accreditation Fee

Centre Accreditation Application Form (CAAF) is a type of Self-Assessment Report that the Training Centre (TC) is expected to submit. CAAF allows the Inspection Agency to ascertain if the applicant TC provides sufficient evidence and information for scheduling an on-site visit. The Centre has to submit it online in the prescribed CAAF format. The CAAF contains all the relevant evidences / documents / pictures of the required parameters, such as infrastructure, machinery, tools and equipment.

If you are already a Registered Training Provider on SMART, and the Training Centre has been created. You can upload the CAAF data by “ Log in as Training Centre”, enter the Training Centre Id and password, and fill up all the details. The picture data uploading activity will be facilitated through a mobile application based technology, whereby the Training Centre would be able to upload geo-tagged/ time stamped data or pictures.

A Training Centre which is being operated on a Rented or Leased property can upload the copy of Rent Agreement as the address proof in the CAAF(Centre Accreditation Application Form). The Rent Agreement should be between the Training Centre Owner and the Building owner to reflect the association between both the parties.