NATIONAL WORKSHOP

Prof. A.S. Pant, Vice Chairman, AICTE rendered the welcome address and expressed his thanks to dignitaries for sparing their valuable time. He commended AICTE for the stellar composition on working out the framework for NVEQF. He explained in detail the skill component in the framework of education content. He explained the horizontal and vertical mobility if arithmetic and logical skills are acquired by the students. AICTE and UGC have approved the framework and universities must now adopt the same. The Vice Chancellors were requested to launch the schemes. AICTE sponsored 370 institutes are to launch the framework. 13 sectors with 57 specialist courses have been approved. 576 Skill Knowledge Providers (SKPs) have been registered. The apprenticeship schemes of 1950 providing for skills did not take off as envisaged and hence the need of NVEQF. 

Sh. Ashok Thakur, Secretary (HE), MHRD stated that skilling in India in next decade has to be through NVEQF. The education system was put on track about 60 years ago but did not give emphasis to skill sets. The Universities and Colleges created high level jobs but never became part of workforce. There was deep rooted cultural bias and social taint towards working with our hands. There is hardly any trace of vocational training in 10+2 syllabus. Skill sets have been centre staged in the 11th and 12th five year plan. In coming years, we have to skill more than 500 million people resulting in the demographic dividend becoming a demographic nightmare. In the current workforce of 450 million people, only 8% are employed. 12 million workforce are joining every year. The necessity of skilling is unquestionable.

Prof. S.S. Mantha, Chairman, AICTE is the architect of NVEQF. He cogently explained to all stake holders as to why NVEQF is required. Education has been the bedrock of Indian civilization. To achieve knowledge economy, we must have knowledge workers and knowledge technologists. 25 million students enter college and approximately the same number drop out due to lack of finance and interest. It is disheartening to know that trade based skills are not accepted by society. Employers need creative workforce. Community colleges (presently existing abroad) are the vehicle for imparting skill training to drop outs. If only 5000 colleges conduct 2 hours courses in evening in areas of manufacturing, IT, commerce etc., half a million workforce can be trained. This can also generate self-employability. The concept of NVEQF is to give certification levels 1 to 7 in vocational qualifications under Government certification. There shall be diploma and degree in vocational sectors comprising of vocational skill building and general learning each level consisting of 1000 hours (from level 1 to 7). Lateral travel from vocational skills to general education and vice-versa is permitted. A student enrolling in skill centre may pass out as a graduate engineer if he fulfills the requirements of the course contents. Community colleges will conduct skill development courses across the country.

Sh. Dilip Chenoy, CEO, National Skill Development Corporation spoke on skill development architecture in India with participation of Indian industry.

Prof. Prem Kalra, Director, DEI Technical College, Agra outlined the pioneering work of his Institute in adopting NVEQF framework.

Sh. Pallam Raju, Hon’ble Union Minister, HRD averred that countries with higher skilled population are more prosperous. In our country, there are several impediments for skill development. These are namely under investment by all stake holders, poor quality training, shortage of trainers, perceived lack of dignity, lack of infrastructure etc. There will be a shortage of 56 million skilled manpower by 2020. There will also be huge number of manpower  unemployable. The “hands on” skill concept of NVEQF has been approved by Govt. of India notification in Sep 2012. 7 levels of skill sets with multiple pathways have been designed by AICTE. 15 sectors with 50 skill areas are ready to take off. Institute of excellence with high quality faculty have to be networked for implementing the concept. Culture of innovation and research are key factors. There should be a proactive role to be played by public-private partnerships.

The technical sessions consisted of discussion on community colleges, role of skill knowledge providers and global collaboration for capacity building. The sessions were chaired by Dr. S.S. Mantha, Sh. J.P. Rai and Sh. Amit Khare respectively.

A documentary by BBC on “Ancient India’s Engineering Skills” was shown.

The workshop came to an end at 6:00 PM.