Incomplete data, unclear info plague SMART portal

IN A FIX Training centres say despite relaunch, it’s loaded with insufficient details on job rolls

National Skill Development Corporation’s (NSDC) online portal, which was re-launched earlier this month after remaining down for two months, continued to battle bugs with users complaining of incomplete data being displayed on the digital platform.

According to training centres, portal SMART (Skill Management Accreditation of Training Centers) – which digitally manages over 13,000 centers across India – was loaded with insufficient data on the job rolls and unclear information on saturation index of targets.

“SMART portal was re-launched after a gap of two months but NSDC has used old format, which is very confusing and unclear as well. It is like old wine in new bottle. Data uploaded should give a clear picture of saturation index, state/ skill/job roll wise in one sheet. The information uploaded is also confusing,” said Hitender Nahar, a training partner in New Delhi.

He added that the state saturation index data displayed when training centres logged in was different from the one mentioned in the PDF uploaded on the website.

The NSDC had recently wrested control of the portal from Quality Council of India (QCI) following series of complaints related to ‘inept’ quality inspection of centers.

QCI controlled and managed the portal for NSDC as an online tool for uploading the information on inspection, affiliation, accreditation and continuous monitoring of the training partners (TPs) and training centers (TCs) that are being run across India under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).

The portal is also used for allo- cation of job rolls and targets to the registered centres for further imparting skill training to the youth.

The training centres also complained that the NSDC failed to upload the guidelines on registering the training centres as training partners as was promised by its officials in a meeting on July 16.

TCs are franchises appointed by TPs and the NSDC had announced that all TCs would be registered direct with the NSDC and promoted as TPs.

NDSC officials said the SMART portal recently opened was a Beta version, which was on trial run before the official release.

A disclaimer on the SMART portal reads “Its software and all content found on it are provided on ‘As is’ and ‘As available’ basis. The Primary purpose of the Beta version launch is to obtain feedback performance, identification of technical problems (if any) and their resolution to deliver their enhanced interfaces and experience to the user.”