The National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) is a competency - based framework that organizes all qualifications according to a series of levels of knowledge, skills and aptitude. These levels, graded from one to ten, are defined in terms of learning outcomes which the learner must possess regardless of whether they are obtained through formal, non-formal or informal learning.

 NSQF in India was notified on 27th December 2013. All other frameworks, including the NVEQF (National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework) released by the ministry of HRD, have been superseded by the NSQF. Government funding is also expected to be on preferential basis for NSQF compliant training/ educational programmes/courses.

 The NSQF would facilitate a paradigm shift from education focused on inputs to an outcomes/competency based education - which would help in the recognition of prior learning, and simultaneously enable the alignment of the Indian qualifications with international ones.

It is a competency based framework that organizes qualifications into ten levels, with the entry level being 1, and the highest level being 10.Each of these levels is characterised by the following categories of competencies.

• Professional knowledge - what the person must know at that level.
  
• Professional skills - what the person should be able to do at that level.
  
• Core skills - which include soft and interpersonal skills.
  
• Responsibility - the degree of supervision that needs to be exercised over the person while doing the job, or the degree of supervision that person is capable of exercising over others.