Street food vendors to become more organised

In the quest to formalize the unorganised sector and certify those who are not formally skilled, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Tourism and Hospitality Sector Skill Counciland Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has organized camps at the ongoing National Street Food Festival in Central Delhi, to induct and certify those who have been food vendors for long but do not have any recognition of their prior learning.

The festival has street food vendors representing different states and their respective popular food.

Under the guidance of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and PMKVY – Ministry’s flagship scheme, NSDC has enabled for a provision for assessing these vendors, on-spot on their skill level with adherence to the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF). Once assessed, their certification as per the process under PMKVY, will be sent to them.

“We are glad to find a partnership with NSDC under the leadership of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, in this endeavor. There are 34.5 lakh food businesses registered with FSSAI and mostly small ones who need handholding, training and assessment. Endeavors like these will help organize this segment of society and create a natural pull for many others in the league,” Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI.

Speaking at the event, Jayant Krishna, CEO, NSDC said, “The initiative will help street food vendors to evolve self-regulatory code and a set of guidelines for safe and hygienic food to win the confidence of common man. Indian street food is popular all over the world for its range of flavors. There is strong need to create awareness about hygiene and best practices among food vendors through their training and recognition. RPL under PMKVY will ascertain that these vendors get certified in their skill and earn respect for their work.”

The target is to skill as many vendors as possible while this festival is on and ensures their certification so that they have recognition by industry and government, and also are acknowledged by FSSAI.

In this way their knowledge & skills will be formally recognized. These vendors are being provided orientation to National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and then being assessed on their existing skill levels over the next three days of the festival.

The Tourism and Hospitality Sector Skill Council with industry experts have developed the Qualification Packs for these vendors basis which the assessment is happening.

Under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal VikasYojana (PMKVY), special focus is given to Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) by recognizing prior competencies of the assessed candidates and then a certificate is provided on successful completion of assessments. PMKVY RPL has been rolled out in 22states and 1union territory in India covering 127districts in23 sectors catering to 95 job roles.

Till date PMKVY- the overall scheme including RPL has enrolled more than 12 lakh candidates through 1,043 training partners who provide training through 9,582 training centers across India.

The process of RPL at the National Street Food Festival begins with a 2 hour workshop whereby Tourism &Hospitality Sector Skill Council together with FSSAI oriented street food vendors on the following parameters:

1. How to maintain health and hygiene standards in the vending area 2. How to maintain safety while vending 3. How to maintain customer-centric service orientation 4. Information on the type of entrepreneurial activities required to run the food vending business (i.e. How to cross sell products) and; 5. How to follow gender and age sensitive service practices

These street vendors have been assessed by Tourism and Hospitality Sector Skill Councilaffiliated assessment agency, Aspiring Minds, on the basis of the above mentioned parameters. The assessment is done using technology. The benefit of doing so is that the assessment results are generated instantly and the assessors are able to provide feedback to the vendors on the spot.

Vendors who pass their assessment will be given a Government certification as per the PMKVY process. They will also be registered under FSSAI for which they will receive a card indicating the same.