Vocational Training in India

Prepared by Deeksha Ahuja and Rabindra Nath Nayak

PRELUDE Quality and relevance of skill development are key to Indias global competitiveness as well as improving an individuals access to decent employment. The present education system in India is founded on the artificially instituted dichotomy between work and knowledge. Rooted in the Brahminical society, this dichotomy separated the knowledgeable from the workers, glorifying the former and shunning the later. It discredited the workers nascent knowledge and certified the Brahminical knowledge as the only valid knowledge. Rooted in this dichotomy, the present education system suffers has become exclusionary since the content of education is far removed from daily life a vast majority. It has led to rote based learning and shortage of skills required in modern knowledge economy, lowering both Indias global competitiveness and individuals access to decent employment. Attempts to correct these ills have been made by the state since independence. Today we have an elaborate system of Industrial Training Institutes to provide vocational education after matriculation. However this system has failed to provide results in form of jobs for youth and employable people for the industry. Rapid changes in the technology-based workplace necessitate lifelong learning. A person is expected to continuously adapt to new and changing situations. In a world where career paths are increasingly nonlinear and pursuit of knowledge interdisciplinary, an individual has to continuously handle, update, evaluate and apply knowledge to newer contexts. Then a society of knowledge without bounds also has to be a society of learning without bounds. While learning has to be embedded in the social context and knowledge is interdisciplinary, the higher objects of learning have to be generic and dynamically linked to the changing needs of the society. REVIEW OF THE CURRENT INFRASTRUCTURE

The Programmes: There are three major programmes of Technical and Vocational Education and Training:

Prepared by Deeksha Ahuja and Rabindra Nath Nayak

Vocational Education Programme, which is running mainly at +2 stage, in general schools, as a distinct stream along with the academic stream, accepting collaborative model, under which skill development is done in vocational institutions with the active cooperation and collaboration of the industry. The programme aims at preparing people for the middle level occupations in the wage and self-employment sector, mainly for the unorganised sector of the economy. Vocational Training Programme, which is running in NCVT approved Industrial Training Institutions (ITIs), preparing work force at the grass-root level in the organised sector, mainly for Engineering based occupations, and also for some non-engineering based trades. Technical Education Programme is running in AICTE approved Polytechnics for preparing work force at the supervisory level, mainly for the Engineering based occupations in the organised sector.

Some of the common problems being faced in the implementation of the programme are as follows: o Psychological preference of the students and parents for academic education. There is poor perception about the vocational courses amongst the key functionaries, parents, employers, students and public at large, because of poor quality and lack of employability of the passouts. Lack of development of proper management structure in the implementing states, causing difficulties in several activities relating to planning, monitoring and providing academic support to the programme which is affecting the quality of the programme. Non availability of trained teachers to teach vocational courses as no state has yet started a programme for teacher preparation though PSSCIVE developed course in B.Voc. Ed., for the pre service training of vocational teachers. Non-availability of adequate instructional materials, specially developed for the needs of the vocational courses. The students have therefore to rely mostly on the notes given by the teachers and some reference books, from the related fields. Insufficient tools and equipment in the laboratories, for conducting practical and learning skills. As a result, the quality of practical training and thereby the development of skills gets affected. Lack of systematic school industry linkages for effective implementation of the programme. This not only affects the transaction of the curriculum, particularly the development of practical skills, but also the acceptability of the vocational passouts amongst the employers. Ad hoc selection of institutions and vocational courses, without assessing local needs or employment potentiality of the courses which, ultimately affects the employability of the passouts. The Central as well as State Governments not modifying recruitment rules, to facilitate employment of graduates of vocational courses; and absence of counseling and guidance services for helping students in making meaningful educational and career choices and for their placement in gainful employment.

Prepared by Deeksha Ahuja and Rabindra Nath Nayak

Inflexibility in the contents, duration and delivery of the programme because of which, the programme is catering only to limited target groups of +2 students in the formal system. Lack of opportunities of vertical mobility in the same or related profession though some states have made provisions for the vocational passouts to take admission into degree level courses.

A review of the mechanism of delivery of vocational education training through Industrial Training Institutes is given below: o Seat Utilization: The low utilization of seats in a substantial number of institutes is indicative of the fact that the basic industrial trades offered by these institutes are becoming increasingly unattractive for their limited scope in terms of creating job opportunities. Infrastructure: The condition of the physical infrastructure in the Industrial Training Institutes regarding building, classrooms and laboratories are as per the norms laid down by the NCVT. They also reported to have uninterrupted power supply between 9.00 am to 4.00 pm during the working days. The institutes having power for less than 4 hours a day were not able to meet the practical training requirements of the trainees as per norms. Inspections / Supervision: In 11% of the institutes not a single inspection was done during the last three years, with 21% reporting to have less than 3 inspections over the period. Budget allocation: Disproportionately large amounts of the funds were allocated for salary payment to the institute staff. Two key areas namely purchase of raw materials and staff training & development are severely neglected. Expenditure on staff training and development, which is an important area for any educational institution, was also found to be lacking in the it is. Training related issues: The survey conducted by FICCI revealed that the number of trades offered by the participating ITIs ranges from 2 to as many as 38. This when seen in the light of the fact that the total number of government approved trades is 107, shows that there exists a major deficiency in terms of the capability of the ITIs to ramp up their scale and offer new and more market oriented courses. Availability of machines: In majority of the Industrial Training Institutes machines required for the trades offered by the institutes were available, but the number of machines not in working conditions as a proportion to the machines available in the institutes ranged from 1% to as high as 53%. The non-availability of NC/CNC machines is acting as serious impediment to align the training provided by these institutes with the emerging market needs. Staff related issues: Shortage of staff has emerged as a serious cause for concern for the Industrial Training Institutes in India with a majority operating with staff strength less than the strength sanctioned for them by the NCVT, DGE&T.

Prepared by Deeksha Ahuja and Rabindra Nath Nayak

FUTURE STRATEGY: UNDER THE NATIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT POLICY

The prevailing scheme of Vocational Education and Training (VET) is restricted at present mainly to those children who have completed at least ten years of formal education. The only opportunity of skill formation and thereby improving employability they have exists either in the vast informal and non-formal space offered by the unorganised sector (masonry, plumbing, electrical works, auto-repair, equipment maintenance, tailoring, turner, welding etc.) or the recently emerging scope of training offered by the organised sector on low-stipend internship model under the Apprenticeship Act. Vocational Education can be meaningful only if it responds to the needs of both the organized and unorganised sectors in a holistic manner and incorporates the technologies and pedagogies already being practiced widely in the society outside the school through the internship mode, especially in the vast unorganised sector. Based on these concerns, a Work-centred Education from pre-primary stage to Class XII and Vocational Education and Training (VET) for those who are seeking dignified options for their vocations/livelihoods after either completing their school education or being pushed-out or walking-out before completing education is envisaged. It is on this bedrock of work-centred education that vocationalised education will be embedded at the secondary/senior secondary stages for all children. Apart from being viewed as an inferior stream, it suffers from poor infrastructure, obsolete equipment, untrained or under-qualified teachers (often on a part-time basis), outdated and inflexible courses, lack of vertical or lateral mobility, absence of linkage with the world of work lack of a credible evaluation, accreditation and apprenticeship system, and , finally, low employability.

Prepared by Deeksha Ahuja and Rabindra Nath Nayak

Innovation has been kept the driving force behind this policy through which the framework moves to a system of equivalence to diplomas and degrees. National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF) will be created with an open/flexible system which will permit individuals to accumulate their knowledge and skills, and convert them through testing and certification into higher diplomas and degrees assuring quality standards, comparable with any international qualification framework. Accepting asymmetry as the prevailing norm, this policy promotes co-created solutions and partnerships between government, industry, local governments, civil society institutions and all potential skill providers. Development of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) has been highlighted throughout the document with focus on short, relevant and effective courses that would get candidates into the workplace. Today government funds are only available for government delivery. The setting up of National Skill Development Corporation (NDFC) will support private skill development initiatives. The NDFC has been given the responsibility of accreditation and infrastructure for information dissemination around measurable criteria on institutions will be created. Ratings of public and private institutions would be put on public domain. The corporation will also be enabling and facilitating career guidance centres to channelize candidates into jobs, apprenticeships and training. To incentivize the growing demographic dividend in India, the scale of operations of the National Skill Development Policy has been kept large. This massive operation does not come without the inclusivity. It addresses the issues of gender disparities while differentiating between rural-urban, organized-unorganized employment and traditional-contemporary workplace. The framework has been kept dynamic, allowing for more flexibility in terms of skills to be imparted and its pedagogical design. A game-changing advance has come in the form of availability of public institutions above the high school level, after class hours for skill development by the private sector, which brings down the cost of fixed infrastructure drastically leaving more funds for training related inputs.

Prepared by Deeksha Ahuja and Rabindra Nath Nayak