Vocational education must be integrated into all schools, higher education
institutions: Education Ministry official
New Delhi | Published : December 18, 2022
The Ministry of Education organized a one-day
Consultation Workshop on Reimagining Vocational Education and Career Guidance
for School Students in collaboration with UNICEF and YuWaah at New Delhi.
Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Sanjay Kumar, chaired
the consultation workshop and two roundtable interactions with the Ministry of
Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Directorate General of Training (ITI),
PSSCIVE, Bhopal, NCERT, CBSE, NCVET, AICTE etc. The workshop and roundtable
interaction were also attended by various experts from PwC, YuWaah, Civil
Society organizations, state education department, practitioners and
organisations working in the fields of vocational education and career
counselling, corporates and current and passed out students.
During the
keynote address, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Sanjay
Kumar, pointed out that India needs to catch up with other countries in terms of
skilling the workforce through formal vocational training during the student
years. NEP 2020 has identified such issues and has suggested remedial measures.
Kumar pointed out that as per NEP, 2020 Vocational Education needs to be
integrated into all schools and higher education institutions in a phased manner
over the next decade. Trades and Courses shall be chosen based on skills gap
analysis and mapping of local opportunities to make it demand driven. Concerted
efforts from all stakeholders will be required to de-stigmatize Vocational
Education and make it aspirational.
"The National Credit Framework,
currently under finalization by the Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship will also eliminate traditional hierarchies and silos between
different areas of learning. It will help in removing complex separations
between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities,
between vocational and academic streams, etc. By providing credits for academic,
extra-curricular and experiential learning, NCrF will help dropouts from the
formal education system to get reintegrated by aligning their practical
experience with the appropriate Framework level," he added
The
consultations were also addressed by Dhuwarakha Sriram Chief of Generation
Unlimited (YuWaah), Youth Development and Partnerships and Terry Durian, Chief
of Education, UNICEF. Various ideas related to reimagining, reinventing
vocational education modules etc. were discussed at length.
Importance of
life skills - both vertical and horizontal, aspirational disconnect and
information asymmetry in uptake of vocational education school,giving a gender
perspective to vocational education, etc were also focus of these discussions.
In the light of newly launched National Education Policy, 2020 the aim
should be to empower students with skills such as cloud computing, artificial
intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, robotic process automation,
cybersecurity, etc. so that vocational graduates could compete in the global
economy. The need to establish virtual labs, so that all students have equal
access to high-quality practical and hands-on experience, was also stressed
upon. The Conference also benefitted from the feedback from students who have
taken vocational courses like Multi-Skilling course and Information Technology
course.
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