“There is no respect for vocation in the mindset. This needs to be changed,” said Sh. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, during the seminar on “Education Reforms: Opportunities and Road Map Ahead” organized by PHD Chamber to highlight the urgent need for reforms in the Higher Education along with a major skill development initiative for increasing the employability of youth.
The event was sponsored by Apeejay Satya Group, Surya World, Aryans Business School, and Rayat & Bahra.
Sh. Sibal said that it is often the stigma attached by the society towards vocational education that dissuades parents from allowing their wards from pursuing the stream.
He said that to build a particular expertise, the industry should come forward and ask the ministry to set up higher education institutes in particular places where such expertise is required.
For increasing investment in this sector significantly, Sh Sibal said that the ministry is trying to set up Education Finance Corporation to help investments in education, for refinancing facilities on long term, on very low rates, on priority rates.” Education implies expansion, inclusion, excellence said Sh. Sibal.
Comparing the enrollment rate in India vis-à-vis, the developed nations, the Minister said that to reach the Western standards of enrolment rate of 40 per cent the country requires at least additional 1,000 universities and 45,000 colleges.
“It is a gargantuan task. What we need is not help in building a few universities but a large scale investment in the next 10 to 20 years”, he added.
The event witnessed an animated interaction between members from the academia and industry from Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, had some of the key speakers like Sh. Suresh Kumar, principal secretary, technical education, Punjab, D.P.S. Sandhu, Director, Prime Minister’s Office, Sandeep Singh Kaura, additional managing director, Rayat and Bahra Dr. B.S. Sohi, campus director, Surya World advocating the need for promoting vocational education in the country.
Earlier, welcoming Sh Sibal, Sh Ashok Kajaria, President, PHD Chamber said, “To meet the mounting demand, North India needs to upgrade its education system, not only by building capacity but also making qualitative changes in teaching methods and imparting industry relevant skills to the youth. In particular, the system needs to ensure access, equity and inclusive education for all. There is need to increase industrial participation coupled with reforms in the education system. This could be acquired through the implementation of Public - Private Partnerships.”
There is an urgent need to find suitable candidates to work in areas that require our priority on a day to day basis such as plumbing and electrical works by devoting the last two years of their school education, mainly the plus one and plus two, for vocational education, said Sandhu.
A National training programme is required to adopt technology on a large scale to achieve large scale reach and availability, said Dr Sohi. He advocated the need for networking of resources among the institutions to make use of the limited resources and stressed on the focus at R&D for developing prototypes in Engineering and Technical Colleges.
According to Kaura Automobile Sector: 35 million; Information Technology Sector: 6 million; Banking & Finance sector: 5 million ; Retail Sector : 17.3 million. India would face 'talent gap'- the lack of right skills for the job required - of more than 5 million by 2012. On the other side, there will be a surplus of 1.3 million unskilled and unqualified school dropouts and illiterates, he said.
“Educational institutions alone can provide the students with the latest know-how and technology. This is something that should be done in participation with the industry,” said Kaura.
Narayanan of KPMG was of the view that there is a need to have integration of vocational education at school level, course and curriculum development as per the needs of industry, conduct a skill mapping to identify the necessary skills that are required by the market so that that it will enable the students to pursue a vocation of their choice with ease. At present there is a clear disconnect between the skills provided and the skills required by the industry, he said.
Nearly 60 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product is contributed by the service sector. Yet we do not have a vocational course focusing on the service sector, said Narayanan.
Sh Vikram Sahgal, Chairman Chandigarh Committee, PHD Chamber, said, “With India poised to become a knowledge economy, the need of the hour is to develop a collaborative industry-academia framework which promotes an education system that generates opportunities in the future for the students and also helps the country win a global edge.”
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