Scheme for Enhancement of Technical Competence and Manpower: Scheme of Financial Assistance for Running Short-term Bridge Courses(SETCMSTBC)

Overview

About SETCMSTBC

Gujarat's Scheme of Financial Assistance for Running Short-term Bridge Courses pays no scholarship and no stipend to trainees. The money goes to the industry partner, and only by reimbursement: an industry or industry association equips a training centre inside an ITI, polytechnic, engineering college or similar host institute, runs short job-oriented courses there with the host, and claims back most of the equipment cost and a share of the running cost from the state. The only cash a trainee can recover is the cost of GSRTC bus passes between home and the centre, refunded after the course is complete; beyond that, a trainee gets the course, a third-party skill assessment and the placement duty the resolution puts on the industry partner (2020 resolution).

The state's share is up to 75% of the centre's machinery, equipment, furniture and fixtures and building refurbishing, limited to Rs 1 crore, according to the bridge-course page of the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED), the Gandhinagar agency that receives the proposals.

The component is Scheme 2 of resolution MIS-102020-328011-I of 1 September 2020, which the Industries Commissionerate lists under its Industrial Policy 2020 orders. It is the one component of the six that pairs a paying industry partner with a host institute, the ITI, polytechnic or college whose premises the centre occupies (2020 resolution).

The resolution's preamble explains the word "bridge": short courses to make existing degree and diploma holders from ITIs, polytechnics and engineering colleges employable for what industry and the workplace need, with upskilling of working operators, supervisors and executive technicians alongside (2020 resolution). The parent Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 said the state intended to introduce industry-specific short-term, long-term and modular courses in existing ITIs, polytechnics and engineering colleges, with the user industry defining the training need and formulating the course material.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The scheme's clock was set by resolution, not by an annual notice:

CED's bridge-course page announces no proposal window for the period after August 2025 (CED's scheme page).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

A bridge-course proposal needs two parties, and the rules test each one separately. The host institute supplies the land and building, and the 2020 resolution lets that host be an existing ITI, polytechnic, engineering college, government-affiliated institution, centre affiliated to a recognised university, or centre promoted by industries or universities. The industry partner proposes the course, provides the trainers and pays its share, and must be an industry or industry association committed to skill development; both must be legal entities registered under the Societies Act, Trust Act or Companies Act (2020 resolution).

One wording gap matters before a trust or society signs on as the industry partner. CED's scheme page still describes the industry partner as industries, industry associations "or any other legal entity", which is the phrasing of the 2015 resolution, while the 2020 text drops that catch-all. An organisation that is not itself an industry body should get CED's view in writing before building a proposal around it.

Courses can be designed around a specific industry need or taken from those specified by the National Skill Development Corporation, NCVT, GCVT or a Sector Skill Council (2020 resolution). Entry rules for trainees are set course by course, not by the scheme: Annexure-A of the CED application form asks for each course's minimum qualification and age, its duration in hours, batches a year and the body that will certify it.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

No exclusion list is published, but the bridge-course rules keep land, new construction and the host's own teachers off the grant. The host institute provides the land and building (CED's scheme page), and the 2020 resolution requires it to provide its internal faculty free of charge. Support the same project can draw from a scheme of the Directorate or Commissionerate of Technical Education, or of Employment and Training, is treated as assistance under this scheme, so it counts toward the state's share instead of adding to it (2020 resolution).

The form's questions on court cases, outstanding government dues and de-registration or blacklisting sit in one applicant block, headed for a university or institute, with no second block for an industry partner (CED application form). With two parties behind every bridge-course centre, agree with CED whose record, or both, goes into that block before filing.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

A bridge-course grant ends in a handover, not a renewal. The centre must keep running for at least five years from the start of its first batch, and when that operative period is over, the assets bought for the courses pass automatically to the host institute (2020 resolution). Neither the 2015 nor the 2020 resolution provides for a second grant to the same centre.

What you get

Award & benefits

The money is paid back, not paid in advance. The 2020 resolution runs the scheme on a reimbursement basis, so the industry partner spends first and claims afterwards, and every purchase needs CED's prior approval through a transparent process (2020 resolution). The capital share is released in two instalments, the second only after the centre has completed five years, so part of the state's share stays on the industry partner's books for that whole period.

Running costs are reimbursed on a net basis. The centre's Institutional Management Committee (IMC) approves which recurring items count, from external faculty fees and training material to tools, electricity and stationery, and the course fees collected from trainees are deducted before the reimbursement share is applied (2020 resolution). A centre that collects more in fees therefore draws less from the state for the same spending.

On a bridge course, travel is the one cost the state returns to the trainee directly. After completing the course, a trainee can claim reimbursement of GSRTC bus passes for the trip between home and the host campus, and the claim with its documents goes to GSRTC, not to CED or the centre (2020 resolution).

• General Assistance: Financial Assistance for Fixed Cost: Up to 75% of the total fixed cost (machinery, equipment, classroom furniture, and refurbishing) will be provided as financial assistance of a maximum ₹1,00,00,000/-.
• Refurbishing Support: Financial assistance for refurbishing the existing building used for training courses, limited to 20% of the project cost, up to a maximum of ₹20,00,000/-.
• Recurring Cost Assistance: Assistance for Recurring cost like remuneration to external faculties, raw material/ training material, tools, other consumables, electricity bill, stationary cost and other administrative expenses as approved by the Institutional Management Committee (IMC).
• Additional Assistance: Awareness Programs & Seminars: A maximum support of ₹1,00,000/- per training center per year will be provided for awareness programs and seminars.
• Other Expenditures: SLEC/IC/CED can approve the expenditure on any study, renovation/refurbishing of existing skill centers/institute, remuneration to third party evaluation of scheme, monitoring/audit expenses, assessment agency, etc.
• Trainee Transportation Reimbursement: Trainees who complete skill upgradation training under any scheme will be eligible for reimbursement of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) bus passes for travel between their residence and training center as per the following rates:
• For BPL candidates, Physically Handicapped, SC, ST, SEBC, and Women: 100% 1. For Other candidates: 75%

What to prepare

Documents required

A single application form serves all six schemes, so its cost sheets are laid out for anchor and nodal institutes, and it tells applicants to fill only the heads that their own scheme's quantum of assistance allows (CED application form). For a bridge-course centre, the 2020 resolution's quantum reaches machinery, equipment, classroom furniture and fixtures and refurbishing on the capital side, and places tools among the recurring items the IMC approves (2020 resolution).

The fee figure in Annexure-A counts twice in this component. The IMC sets the fee for trainees the industry partner does not sponsor, and whatever the centre collects is subtracted from running costs before the state's share is worked out (2020 resolution), so the fee break-up per trainee shapes the reimbursement claim as well as the course. Annexures B and C, filed in Excel as well as on paper, cost the project over five years and for the first year, the same five years the centre must run before its second capital instalment falls due, and every cost figure has to be backed by quotations and a comparison statement (CED application form).

Step by step

How to apply

The industry partner writes the proposal. The resolution's bridge-course clause has it assess what the host institute already has against what the chosen course needs, cost out only the additional facilities, and submit the proposal online to CED, which receives applications twice a year, in April and October, for its Screening Committee (2020 resolution).

In practice the file comes together in this order, using the CED application form:

1. The industry partner and the host settle the course, the premises and how much of each batch the industry partner will sponsor.
2. The industry partner lists the machinery and infrastructure the host already owns in the form's self-declaration, then costs only the gap in Annexures B to D.
3. The signed and stamped file goes to the Director, CED, Gandhinagar.

myScheme records this component's mode as offline, against the resolution's online route, and CED's bridge-course page offers just two downloads, the Scheme 2 training-partner list and the form, with no portal link (CED's scheme page). Confirm the route with CED before the industry partner assembles the file.

Following Up After You Submit

CED publishes no online status tracker for bridge-course proposals. The stages come from the process flow printed on the form's last page, and the clock at each stage from the resolution:

If a decision stalls, "Short-term Bridge Courses by Industries/Institute" is named as Scheme 2 on CED's citizen charter under the Gujarat Right of Citizen to Public Services framework, which still carries the 2015 policy's heading and sets these limits:

How winners are picked

Selection process

The 2020 resolution names who appraises a bridge-course proposal but publishes no scoring rule. A Screening Committee chaired by CED's Director, with members from the Directorate of Employment and Training, the Directorate of Technical Education, the Industries Commissionerate, Gujarat Livelihood Promotion Company, iNDEXTb and Gujarat Knowledge Society plus an expert, checks each proposal for feasibility and may call in outside experts, and the State Level Empowered Committee (SLEC) under the Industries Commissioner sanctions the assistance (2020 resolution).

For a bridge course, the self-declaration of machinery and infrastructure the host already has is the baseline the proposal is measured from, because the grant pays only for additional facilities. Around it, the form puts the applicant's past training and placement record with employer names and salaries, industry recommendation or demand letters, a justification for each course with a demand-supply gap analysis, and a five-year projection of trainees (CED application form).

CED's list of training partners empanelled under Scheme 2 names 11 centres, each with its industry partner and training address:

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The IMC runs each centre. It combines officials from one or more of the Directorate of Employment and Training, the Directorate of Technical Education, the Industries Commissionerate, a university or the Education Department with the industry partner, CED and an expert. It procures the equipment, fixes the course content, sets fees for trainees the industry partner has not sponsored, appoints the training coordinator and chooses external faculty and their pay (2020 resolution).

The industry partner carries most of the remaining duties under the same resolution:

• Provide the training coordinator, master faculty and external faculty, and train the host institute's own faculty.
• Keep a separate bank account and separate books of receipts and expenditure for the scheme.
• Arrange in-plant practical training, and third-party skill assessment through a body empanelled under NSDC, NCVT, GCVT or a Sector Skill Council, or another body the SLEC approves.
• Prove each placement with an appointment letter and a bank statement showing salary credited.

The performance bank guarantee in this component is lodged jointly by the industry partner and the host institute, yet the resolution leaves ultimate responsibility for the centre's performance with the industry partner alone (2020 resolution). Because the guarantee is joint, a government ITI or polytechnic that hosts a centre is party to it, and the resolution's general requirements allow government bodies no exemption. A centre may also work as a service centre for industry clusters and industries, earning revenue from its machinery, which the resolution presents as the route to self-sustainability.

Get help

Contact

A trainee and an applicant reach this scheme through different doors. A trainee looking for a seat goes to the centre itself, at a host campus on CED's Scheme 2 training-partner list. A proposal, or a question about one, goes to CED's Director, whose details the application form gives as:

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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References

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