Government needs to diversify vocational education and training

Aug 03: As per the news article I read today in a newspaper that Government has cleared the World Bank funding of Rs 1,581 crore for upgrading vocational training programmes in all 400 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). But as it aims to generate more employment for students, urgent need of the reforms in the courses and curriculum of the training institutes such as including some new courses and practical training keeping in mind the market demands raises its head.

Today, youth after completing their intermediate or bachelor degree are very much attracted towards IT industry as it provides ample job opportunities especially in BPOs and KPOs that don’t require much technical skills other than a good communication skill. But those jobs are only limited to metros or urban areas which house such multinational companies. So a large number of unemployed youth in the rural areas with no facility of industrial and vocational training courses providing job security, remain non-beneficiaries of this sector’s growth in jobs.

Government had established ITIs to fasten the process of industrialization though the number of institutions later decreased with the growth of IT sector and quality suffered. The present World bank-funding is purposed to be spent in the improvement of quality of vocational training and also to certain systematic reforms in ITIs. This is a step forward to enhance our human resource not just those of urban areas but also the fruits are intended to reach rural youth in the form of qualitative professional education to meet the many fold demand of skilled labour in our industries in near future.

India where over 50 per cent of population is below 30 years of age there should be more and more vocational and technical institutions compared to the present 400 government-funded ITIs (forget about those private ITIs who charge a large amount from students as donation for admission). No doubt the higher educational institutions like IITs, IIMs and Medical Colleges in India are counted among the best in the world but then everyone can not be a doctor, an MBA or an engineer. Hence we need to target all those who opt for technical training of one or two years in different institutes.

Compared to China and countries in Europe India is far behind in vocational training and this is the major cause for unemployment and slow industrial growth. The need of the hour is to diversify the whole vocational education and training (VET) programme targeting specialized skilled labour market and different industries including tourism, IT, retailing, electronics, automobiles, film, TV as well as our traditional agriculture, crafts and cottage industry.

India now constitutes more than 16% of world population with very less skilled man-power in stock. Establishment of good number of vocational training institutions with up-to-mark quality will certainly create a large number of skilled manpower that could later assist in increasing over all productivity, GDP, amount of export, per capita income in the end leading to a better human development index in future. Hence the government needs to establish more and more new ITIs along with structural changes in the present one to enroll more and more students.