Skill development schemes can improve employability only when eligible youth know about them, can reach suitable training, complete the course, and convert certification into decent work. This study examines awareness, participation, perceived training quality, and livelihood outcomes associated with government skill development schemes in Tumakuru district, Karnataka. It adopts a cross-sectional mixed-method design covering youth aged 18–35 across urban, semi-urban, and rural locations. The proposed survey instrument measures unaided and aided awareness of the Chief Minister’s Kaushalya Karnataka Yojane (CMKKY), Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Government Tool Room and Training Centre (GTTC) programmes, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs), and related employment services. A worked empirical analysis is presented for a sample of 240 respondents. In this dataset, 55.0% of respondents had heard of at least one scheme, but only 26.7% had completed government-supported training. Awareness was significantly associated with place of residence, education, and regular digital access. Among 64 trainees, employment increased from 32.8% before training to 60.9% after training, while mean monthly personal earnings rose from Rs. 6,420 to Rs. 10,780. However, weak placement support, travel distance, incomplete information, and mismatch between courses and local jobs constrained impact. The findings support decentralised awareness campaigns, taluk-level counselling, transport and scheduling support, employer-linked curriculam, and transparent post-training tracking.