[Reader-list] Plugging the skills gap: Challenges in vocational education and training

[Chintan]

Sharing excerpts from http://www.indiatogether.org/2010/mar/eco-skills.htm

The article is written by Megha Aggarwal, introduced on the website as* "*a
social entrepreneur currently in the process of setting up institutions for
quality dynamic and inclusive vocational education."

To read the entire article, check the link pasted above.

"Most policy decisions in India invoke the 'guns and butter' trade-off - we
have limited resources, many conflicting uses for these resources and our
policy makers therefore have to make hard choices. However, there are some
critical issues, the solutions for which lie less in resource allocation,
and more with a change in policy and mindset. This article focuses on one
such issue - the severe need that India has for skilled workers, and the
inability of our existing vast educational system to produce them."


"What is the solution to this glaring mismatch? A cursory glance at several
industrialised nations indicates that a thriving, dominant Vocational
Education and Training (VET) system can play a significant role in reducing
this imbalance. Vocational education focuses on the creation of skills in
specific trades that generate employability. Its focus is significantly
different from higher education in that it recognises a very basic fact from
operations theory - our products, services, and potentially our long-run
welfare are only as good as the weakest link in the chain. Offering quality
vocational education to our youth today is of paramount importance to
India's economic and social development, if we want India to become to force
to be reckoned with globally."


"We live in a world with diverse and evolving production lines, which in
turn require diverse skill sets. While a country needs someone to produce
research on say, how to build the best goods, it also needs someone who is
trained to a world-class level, to man and operate the technical apparatus
used to produce and maintain these world-class goods and services. The
weakest link in India today is not a lack of engineers and doctors, business
school students or IT professionals. It is the lack of young skilled-workers
to make our steel factories run, to provide top-notch ancillary services
from automobile repair and white-goods installation to planning our cities
better and improving our revenues from tourism."


"The student population does not perceive VET as an option that gets them
what they aspire for. An optimal strategy has to address both why more
Indian students are not taking up vocational education, as well as aim to
correct the ineffectiveness of existing providers to attract and equip
motivated students with skills to become part of a productive workforce."



"Industry insiders, however, are aware that mechanisms for promoting
vocational education have been around in the Government for ages, in
different shapes and forms, and have failed dismally for the most part.
There are close to 7000 ITIs, where training is imparted in 128 trades. The
period of training varies from 6 months to 3 years, while the entry
qualifications are academic and vary - from those who have passed Class 8 to
12. These institutions are widely perceived - both by students and the
industry - as being ineffective and out of touch with industry needs. Of the
128 trades they teach, many such as turners, machinists and grinders have
been rendered obsolete by technological advances. The curriculum for several
of the others e.g. several engineering trades has not been revised in
several decades.

This has led to a mass-churn of graduates who are not needed by the industry
and are not equipped with the basic technical know-how of their trade and as
a result are becoming a part of India's vast unemployment pool. At the same
time, the government is encouraging private sector participation in the form
of Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs). However, due to the lack of a
transparent and intuitive accreditation system, a multitude of unaccredited
institutions have sprung up in places, and a lack of any formal
accreditation makes accountability and quality control impossible. There are
several thousand community polytechnics that are training about 450,000
people a year, and none of these programs has been evaluated rigorously.

Unfortunately, simply reducing existing government inefficiencies and
involving the private sector will not automatically ensure that parents will
want their children to take up vocational education. It is dangerous to
discount the very deep-rooted stigma associated with vocational training. It
is common perception amongst parents and students that going for any sort of
vocational or skills-based training would lead to eventual employment (if at
all) in a 'blue collar' job, which is considered less respectable. Also,
vocational education is perceived as a dead-end, with no existing linkages
to the formal higher education system.

Given these challenges, the critical message to get across is that not
everyone *should* (as opposed to *can*) become an engineer, MBA, lawyer or a
doctor. It is only by demonstrating that vocational education allows people
to improve their livelihoods by getting jobs they desire that this mindset
can be shifted."