Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) on Thursday said it will set up sector skill councils in five employment intensive sectors in collaboration with National Skill Development Cooperation (NSDC).

"We in collaboration with National Skill Development Cooperation (NSDC) will set up sector skill councils in five employment intensive sectors like food processing, chemical and petrochemicals, media entertainment, sports and hospitality tourism," Advisor to FICCI Rajan Kohli told PTI on the sidelines of an event last night.

"These would be industry led councils with an objective to create labour market information systems through research so that there is authentic updated data about the sector like labour supply demand, gaps, emerging trends....," Kohli said.

"With the help of industry, occupational standards will be set up. All stakeholders will be able to use this information system," he said.

NSDC, which is acting as a development institution by funding creation of skill development capacities, has mandate from GoI to set up 28 sector skill councils in employment intensive sectors like textile, leather, automobiles, food processing, of which FICCI has bagged five, Kohli said.

The sector skill councils are being set up in the country as part of the national skill mission, launched by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with a view to have skilled workforce of at least 500 million people by 2020.

"For the five sectors, we have got the proposal already approved from NSDC. The media entertainment council should be up and running in three months," Kohli claimed. The proposal for food processing council is expected to be submitted in August, and remaining three sectors by December, Kohli said.

By the middle of 2012, all the five councils should be up and running. They will be occupational standards setting bodies, a certification agency issuing quality certificates, and an accreditation body for training providers, he said.

PM has created a national skill mission with an objective that at least 500 million people should be trained by 2020. Now an eco-system needs to be created to accomplish the task, Kohli said, adding that NSDC is offering funds by giving soft loans to entities who can train people.