Learning to compete (Realignment needed in Skill India to make it meaningful)

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

 Learning to compete (Realignment needed in Skill India to make it meaningful)

---

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

• NSQF, 2013 : The National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) gave a push to India's skills agenda in 2013, by organising in levels, all qualifications.
• How does it do that? Level 1 is like Class 9, and Levels 2 / 3 / 4 are Classes 10, 11 and 12 respectively. Levels 5 to 7 are UG education, etc.
• Deadline of implementation : Dec. 2018 was the deadline, by which all training programmes had to be NSQF-compliant, and all admission requirements defined in terms of NSQF levels.
• India Skills, a great initiative : The Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) runs this, and 27 States participated in the 2018 event. Maharashtra was no.1, followed by Odisha and New Delhi. Teams will now go to the 45th World Skills Competition, Russia, 2019. Even the Abilympics was part of 2018 event (for Persons with Disabilities).
• Two urgent priorities now : There are five pillars of Indian skills system - 

1. secondary schools and polytechnics, 
2. industrial training institutes, 
3. NSDC-funded private training providers, 
4. 16 Ministries giving short-term training, and 
5. employers giving training. We must find out the sources of participants who arrived in Skills India 2018. So dramatic improvements are possible.

• Sharda Prasad Expert Group report, 2016 : Many reforms were mooted in this report. The India Skills event had very few participants from NSDC's short term courses, indicating that much broader occupation groups need to be taken up by NSDC.
• Why NSQF-alignment is not happening? A reason is that clear definition of course curriculum is missing, which will enable progression to next level (like in regular academics). Alignment of tertiary level vocational courses with prior real knowledge of theory / practical is missing.
• Ministries not aligned well : Ministry of HRD and Ministry of Skills Development are not aligned well. Hence, the new Bachelor of Vocation and Bachelor of Skills courses never took off.
• Too many sector skills councils (SSCs) : Consider the World Skills competition. They are in - construction and building technology, transportation and logistics, manufacturing and engg. technology, information and communication technology, creative arts and fashion, social and personal services. For these, 19 SSCs participated, of the total 38 SSCs.
• Problem in the SSC design : We have 4 SSCs for manufacturing - iron and steel, strategic mfg., capital goods, and infrastructure equipment. In World Skills courses, these are just one. India can merge all into just one - "Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing Council". Many more can be similarly merged.
• Broader skills in broader occupational areas : Making so many SSCs (40 to start with) was an error. Let us change our track to broader skills in broader occupations. NSDC-SSC courses are not producing students with "holistic" skills.
• National Industrial Classification of India : Sectors must be now consolidated as per the classification in it - quality will improve, outcomes will be better, competence assessment will be direct. 
• German example : Germany imparts skills in only 340 occupational groups, that are broad enough to ensure that if the job descriptions change, the youth is able to adapt quickly.
• Summary : India's performance in skilling its people, and also at World Skills competition 2019, will depend on rationalisation of its multiple sector skills councils, and focus on broad occupational areas.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

Join UPSC Self Prep course | Online Course (PT Gurukul)  | Covid Special Course | Join PT courses

* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.