Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs)

Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) are non-profit institutions jointly established by the Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank. RSETIs was developed for unemployed rural youth to generate self-employment through short term training intervention. The primary objective of the RSETIs is to impart quality training programme in skill development to the rural youth at free of cost. Each RSETI offers 25 to 30 skill development programmes in a financial year approved by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) under agriculture, product, process and general programmes through a uniform standardised curriculum. In this article, we look at the Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) in detail.

Objective of the RSETIs

The objective of the RSETIs are given below:

To mitigate hardships of unemployment and poverty among rural youth.
To encourage youth by providing training, self-employment, entrepreneurship development and job creation.
To cater service to lakhs of youth across the country to attain sustainable growth in self-employment.
To provide intensive short-term residential self-employment training programme with free food and accommodation.

Role and Responsibilities of RSETIs and MoRD

The Role of RSETIs and MoRD are as follows:

RSETIs is a unique initiative which not only provides training but also extends continuous support for 2 years.
RSETIs identifies, improves, trains and assists rural youth to generate self-employment as an alternative career and a source of livelihood.
RSETIs trains youth in the age group between 18-45 years, irrespective of caste, creed or religion.
RSETIs have trained over 24.30 lakh unemployed candidates, of which 15.42 lakh candidates have successfully settled with a settlement percentage of 69%.
MoRD extends its support by offering Rs. 1 Crore for construction of RSETI building and State Governments have been allotting land at free of cost for construction of RSETI premises.
MoRD is responsible for reimbursing the training expense occurred by the candidates to the bank.
MoRD signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with National Academy of RUDSETI (NAR) to bring unity in the functioning and to reach the desired outcomes.

Features of RSETI

The following are the features of RSETI.

Focuses on skill development and conversion of unemployed rural youth as successful entrepreneurs.
Intensive and continuous tracking of RSETI trained persons for 2 years.
Increased sustainability of enterprises through RSETIs guidance in choosing the right activity.
Establishing self-confidence, development of entrepreneurship skills and leadership qualities among themselves at RSETI.
Opportunities are offered to a large number of unemployed rural youth by complete awareness and mobilisation by RSETIs.
Availability to exchange ideas and learn from the best practices of others and exposure to marketing.

Sponsor Bank of RSETI

Different banks sponsor RSETI to have diverse approaches in their functioning, working towards the common goal of empowering the youth. Some of the common initiatives taken by the banks are specified here:

Establishing an exclusive trust or society to take care of the RSETI.
Providing the expected infrastructural support such as computers, internet facility, audio-visual aids etc.
Choosing the Director from a pool of officers of the bank so that the best talent is made available to the RSETI.

Programme Structure

Each RSETI performs about 30 to 40 Skill Development Programmes in a financial year in various avenues. All the programmes will be covered in short duration ranging preferably from 1 to 6 weeks. The general classification of the types of programmes is as follows: Agricultural Programmes - Agriculture related activities like dairy, poultry, apiculture, horticulture, sericulture, mushroom cultivation, floriculture, fisheries, etc. Product Programmes - Dress designing for men and women, utility articles, agarbathi manufacturing, football making, bags, bakery products, leaf cup making, recycled paper manufacturing, etc. Process Programmes - Two wheeler repairs, radio or TV repairs, motor rewinding, electrical transformer repairs, irrigation pump-set repairs, tractor and power tiller repairs, cell phone repairs, beautician course, photography and videography, screen printing, photo lamination, domestic electrical appliances repair, computer hardware and DTP. General Programme- Skill development programme for women etc. Other Programme - related to sectors like leather, construction, hospitality and any other sector depending on local requirements.

RSETI Bazaars

RSETI Bazaars provides a ready forum for trained entrepreneurs to have experience by marketing the products produced by them. National Centre for Excellence of RSETIs (NACER) has always been supportive for the efforts put by the RSETIs in organising RSETI Bazaars to assist the past trainees in understanding the dynamics involved in the marketing process and selling their goods in bazaars. This initiative has supported the trainees to develop contacts with customers for their future growth.

Impacts

The Ministry of MSME has collaborated with NACER for training the beneficiaries of Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Khadi and Village Industries Commission.
Impressed by RSETI model, Departments of MANAS, National SC/ ST Development Corporation and Women and Child Welfare Department have came forward for collaborative efforts to train persons belonging to Minorities, SC or ST and Women applicant through RSETIs.