Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Minister for Education and Skill Development, on September 20 launched a new app for promoting skill development in the leather sector. The Skill Certification Assessment for Leather Employees (SCALE) app is intended to be a single-stop solution for skilling, learning, assessment, and employment in the leather industry. The app was launched at CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai.

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"Glad to launch SCALE app which provides a one-stop solution for the skilling, learning, assessment and employment needs of the leather industry," Pradhan said on Twitter.

Also read: Digital tech in leather sector needs new impetus on skilling: Union Minister

The mobile application is developed by the Leather Skill Sector Council for the Android ecosystem. Found under the name ‘Scale India’ in the Google Play Store, the app has already been downloaded thousands of times. The app has different features for stakeholders of the leather segment according to their experience. The app serves to provide for the needs of trainees, employers, employees, assessors and trainers.

The app will allow individuals from all walks of life to attend live-streamed leather classes. The classes will be streamed from the state-of-the-art leather studio at Leather SSC. The app will also have common troubleshooting advice, along with theory assessments to help individuals improve their knowledge.

Also read: Govt mulls incentives for leather sector; GST cut, export sops on the cards

The leather sector is one of the major employers in the country, with over 44 lakh individuals working in some capacity within the industry. However, the livelihood of a large percentage of these individuals is threatened due to the rapid changes in the leather industry in terms of digital technologies and environment-friendly techniques.

As a result, Pradhan has called for working on skilling, reskilling and upskilling and capacity-building in the industry. Apart from the app, Pradhan suggested establishing ‘Common Facility and Skilling Centres’ across India. The minister stated that the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, NSDC, CLRI, and Leather Sector Skill Council would collaborate to set up these centres.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)