Integrating employability into school education

In the last decade, Karnataka has emerged as a key state in India with setting up of knowledge based industries such as IT, biotechnology and engineering.

The State leads in electronics, computer software and biotechnology exports. It has also come to be known as the ‘Science Capital of India’, with over 100 Research & Development (R&D) centres, and a preferred destination for multinational companies (MNCs) with more than 650 such companies already located in Karnataka. Bangalore is ranked among the top four technology clusters of the world.

The State Government is giving a lot of thrust on vocational training now-a-days. It has opened 289 polytechnic institutes throughout the State, in addition to setting up of 1,507 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). Assistance is also provided to private players for setting up training institutes within the State.

Challenges

While the State is on the path of development and has also been taking several initiatives for skill development, NSS based estimates put 20.8% students dropping out of school system against the National Average of 25.6%.In Karnataka, 50% of these school drop outs (who are also unskilled) seek employment in five districts - Bangalore Urban, Belgaum, Mysore, Bellary and Dakshina Kannada - because of the concentration of industrial units in these districts.

The Skills Gap Study conducted by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for Karnataka finds that the curriculum followed in the technical training institutes is not updated to reflect the current market needs. As a result, a lot of students who are placed are not able to cope up with the shop-floor requirements and apply skills in the practical scenario. This lacunae results in making majority of the youth passing out from the educational institutions as unemployable and the industry has to spend considerable time and resources to train them as per their needs.

As far as technical education is concerned, the quality of the laboratory infrastructure is of utmost importance. The higher updated and advanced labs are, the better the learning and skilling will be for the students.

NSDC Skills Gap Study has found that majority of the labs in technical training have out-dated equipment, which are not in line with the current industry usage.

Cumulative projections

NSDC Skills Gap Study estimates that between 2012 and 2022, an incremental demand (cumulative for ten years) will be 8.47 million people across Karnataka in 20 high growth sectors. 

In the next ten years, maximum demand is expected to be for the semi-skilled workers at 43 per cent of the total incremental demand. This is expected to follow by minimally skilled workers at 27 per cent, skilled workers at 25 per cent and highly skilled workers at the remaining five per cent.

Changing paradigm

Understanding the lacunae in the existing system of imparting vocational education, the Government of India brought out revised Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Vocational training (CSSV) in Secondary Education by integrating employability education into School Education in September 2011.

The scheme is operated within the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF), which establishes a system of clear educational pathways from school to higher education while providing certification of vocational skills.

The NVEQF project has been approved for the State of Karnataka by MHRD, GOI and accordingly Karnataka will be implementing the National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework (NVEQF) from the academic year 2013.

The aim is to start the project at Level 1 (Class IX) and Level 1 and 2 (Class XI) in about 100 government schools across Karnataka in five trades with the goal to make students employable when they complete secondary education. The Project will be jointly funded by Central Government and the State Government.

TheState Government and NSDC signed MoU for the implementation of NVEQF at RashtriyaMadhyamikShikshaAbhiyan in Bangalore on 28th October 2013.

The association of the Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) set up by NSDC will be taking the lead in the implementation of this project. SSCs are composed of employers from the sector, academia and government representatives. The SSCs set the standards based on the industry inputs and the academia and training setups using those standards build the outcome or competency based curriculum and provide industry relevant training, which in turn makes students highly employable. Karnataka is the third state in the country to implement this model after Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Five trades have been identified to introduce vocational education - Automotive, Healthcare, Retail, IT & ITeS and Beauty & Wellness. More trades will be introduced as the number of schools increase in the coming years in phased manner.

The New Model

The MOU signed between Karnataka State Government and NSDC entitles the Sector Skill Councils to take the lead in implementation of the CSSV scheme. The SSCs would undertake the following activities; 

* Identification of trades/occupations: Identify in-demand trades/occupations for which employment opportunities exist in the state of Karnataka, including a district wise mapping of skill in demand mapping to NVEQF level 4.

* Accrediting curriculum: SSC will review the available curriculum and accredit the one best suited for the program - both for the students and trainers on the basis of guidelines set by NSDC.

* Training delivery: The entire Level 1 to Level 4 vocational training delivery would be outsourced by the Karnataka State Education Board to the vocational training partner who are affiliated to the respective Sector Skill Council and also funded by NSDC.

The recommendation of selecting the affiliated training partner to the Karnataka Education Department will be given by the respective Sector Skill Councils set by NSDC. The appointed training partner in turn will optimally deploy the required number of faculty. It will be the endeavour of the SSC and affiliated Vocation Training Providers to source the faculty for the project from the Karnataka State.

* Quality control of training: Sector Skill Council will take the responsibility of doing quality control of the training, including providing the master trainers for the teacher training of the training partner and will help in setting assessment guidelines and doing assessment and certification of teachers deputed for conducting the trainings.

* Student assessment and certification: Sector Skill Council will organise for the assessment of skills in the practical exams and issue a joint certificate on the skills component to the successful candidate along with the Karnataka Education board.

* Industry interface: Sector Skill Council will drive all aspects and continuous industry interface, identifying local industries who will actively engage to help the delivery of the training and placement of students into internships/jobs.

This association is expected to bring in a fresh lease to vocational education in the state and mitigate the current shortcomings of skilled manpower training. It is hoped that more and more youth in the State will be employable and get the industry placement facilitation via Sector Skill Council Intervention.

(The writer is the principal of Standards & QA, NSDC.)