Skill Development and Vocational Training

A Brief Study of Skill Development and Vocational Training


 

The population growth of India has declined over many years, yet the labour force is projected to grow close to 2% or some 7 million or more per year over the next few years. Modernisation and new social processes have led to more women entering the workforce lowering the dependency ratio from 0.8 in 1991 to 0.73 in 2001 and further declined to 0.59 by 2011. This trend is in sharp contrast to industrialised countries including China where the ratio is on the rise. The low dependency ratio gives India a comparative cost advantage and competitiveness.

The Eleventh Five Year Plan had focused on developing a large pool of skilled workforce to meet the needs of the industry, trade and service sectors. For this purpose, a major initiative “Skill Development Mission” with an outlay of INR 22,800 crores was proposed. The mission aimed at ensuring the supply side response involving both public and private sectors in a symbiotic relationship. An estimated 58.6 million new jobs in the domestic economy and about 45 million jobs worldwide, it opens a great opportunity to the Indian youth and the government and private sectors which must act in a concerted manner to seize these opportunities.

THE ACTION AGENDA

Industrial Training Institutes

The Ministry of Labour and Employment plans to upgrade ITSs into institutions of excellence by investing INR 2-3.5 crores in each of them, establish new ITIs in Public Private Partnership(PPP) mode to empower the unskilled workforce of backward areas, setup new ITIs in SEZs, quadruple ITI capacity by encouraging them to run 2 shift operation and facilitate intensive faculty development program.

With India’s demographic profile consisting of 550 million below the age of 25, it has the potential to constitute one-fourth of the global workforce by 2020. There is a need for a focused agenda for education and skill development to harness this. Statistics show that the lack of vocational skills is a major challenge.

A part of the unemployment problem emanates from the mismatch between the skill requirements of the market and the skill base of the job seekers.In order to accelerate the course of development in the country, efforts have to be made to nourish innovation, entrepreneurship and to address the skill requirements of a growing economy.

Polytechnics

The Ministry of HRD plans to upgrade 400 Government Polytechnics, running all Polytechnics in two shifts, establishing 125 new Polytechnics through PPP mode and encouraging larger initiatives in the private sector.

Vocational education is proposed to be expanded from 9500 Senior Secondary schools to 20000 schools, thereby increasing the intake capacity from 1 million to 2.5 million. All VE schools will get into partnership with employers for providing faculty/trainers, internships, advice on curriculum framing, skill testing and certification etc.

Read more: Key Takeaways from the Economic Survey 2020

Community Polytechnics

Community Polytechnics have been designed to deliver the same types of courses in a community environment which are delivered through vocational education in schools, but the focus would be on the informal sector of the economy. Community Polytechnics have been established as entities within polytechnics rather than as autonomous institutions.

RUDSETI

Ministry of Rural Development has initiated setting up of 600 Rural Development and Self-Employment Training Institutes (RUDSETI) throughout the country. State Governments and banks will collaborate in this effort and the institutes will focus on entrepreneurship development programs for the rural masses.

Jan Shikshan Sansthan

Jan Shishan Sansthan was launched as an Adult Education Program aimed at improving the vocational skills and quality of life of workers and their family members. Financed by the Adult Education Directorate within MHRD, the program initially focused on adults and young people living in urban and industrial areas and those who had migrated from the rural areas. JSS has acted as a district level resource to organize vocational training and skill development programs.

While looking for new TVET and Skills development strategies, we need to remember that in India, the shift of knowledge-based activity has made an impact to the industry in two ways:

Changing the manufacturing sector landscape so that some traditional heavy industries have shrunk considerably (e.g. engineering manufacturing) while other sectors of the manufacturing industry have moved up the value chain (e.g. electronic components and medical instruments);

Reshaping the services sector, particularly through the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), leading to growth opportunities in both

This paradigm shift in industrial scenario has been reflected in the NASSCOM-McKinsey Report 2005 Projections which indicate that talent pool will fall short by about 0.5 million suitable professionals by the end of the decade and the IT and ITES sector will need an additional 1 million plus qualified people in the next five years. The Skills Development Mission of the Government of India envisages to devise a comprehensive scheme for developing diverse and wide range of skills for the youth that will enable the country to reap the scientific and demographic dividend.

National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)

NIOS offers Open Basic Education (OBE) programs designed to bring students to Grade 3, Grade 5 or Grade 8 level. Its mandate covers especially designed groups described as girls and women, working men and women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the handicapped, other disadvantaged groups and rural youth. By assisting rural youth, NIOS serves potentially the largest group of new entrants to the labour market, a group most likely to find itself working in the informal labour market.

International Collaborations

The Ministry of HRD has entered into bilateral collaboration with countries like the UK, New Zealand etc. for sharing the best practices and policy experiences for the advancement of quality assurance and recognition of qualifications. The partner countries have agreed to mutually cooperate and exchange experiences and information in the areas of designing of vocational education and skills development policies, curriculum development, delivery and funding mechanism for vocational education and training, leadership and capacity building among teachers and trainers, quality assessment of vocational education and mutual recognition of vocational education qualifications.

Knowledge Initiatives in the 11th Five Year Plan

Vocational Training & Skill Development

·  Launch a National Skill Development Mission with an outlay of Rs 31,200 crore to increase capacity from 2.5 million to 10 million per annum;

·  The National Skill Development Mission would encourage Ministries to expand existing public sector skill development infrastructure and its utilization by fivefold.

·  Modernize existing public sector infrastructure to get into PPP mode with functional and governance autonomy, establish a credible accreditation system and a guidance framework for all accrediting agencies, encourage agencies to rate institutions on standardized outcomes, and establish a “National Skill Inventory” and a “National Database for Skill Deficiency Mapping” on a national web portal.

·  Set up a National Qualification Framework, which establishes equivalence and provides horizontal mobility between various Vocational, Technical and Academic streams at more than one career point and a Trainee Placement and Tracking System for effective evaluation and future policy planning.

· Enlarge the coverage of the skill spectrum to 1000 trades, with relevance to our emerging needs while making a distinction between structural, interventional and last mile unemployability and correspondingly set up programs for 24 months, 12 months and 6 months duration. “Finishing Schools” will be encouraged to take care of last mile unemployability.

· Create a “National Skill Development Fund” imposing a universal skill development obligation on industry to invest in skill development of SCs/STs/OBCs/Minorities/ others candidates from BPL families – as their contribution to affirmative action combined with matching Government contribution.

· Facilitate repositioning of employment exchanges as outreach points of the Mission for storing and providing information on employment and skill development and to function as career counselling centres.

· Enlarge the 50,000 Skill Development Centres program eventually into a “Virtual Skill Development Resource Network’ for web-based learning.

Check our Instagram : Ownguru

Facebook : Ownguru

If you have an interesting write-up or any suggestion, write to us at ownguru@gmail.com

Facebook Comments