National Workshop on:Skilling India for the Next Decade Through NVEQF

India is aiming to increase the percentage of the workforce which has received formal skills through vocational education and training from 12.0 percent at present to 25.0 percent by 2017.

This was stated by Union HRD Minister Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju while inaugurating he National Workshop on ‘Skilling India for the Next Decade through NVEQF' here today. In order to achieve this target, the Minister said that "Public-Private Partnership in financing, service delivery and provision of workspaces and training of trainers must be promoted to meet the demand and supply gap in the field of skill development."

There is a need to establish an institutional mechanism for providing access to information on skill inventory and skill management and development. Special emphasis should be laid on those sectors that have high employment potential, he added. The Minister further said that the objective of Skill Development is to create a workforce empowered with upgraded skills, knowledge and internationally recognized qualifications to gain access to employment and ensure India's competitiveness in the dynamic global market.

He expressed the view that the skill building or skill development in India is derived from the changing demographic profiles in India vis-à-vis China, Western Europe, and North America. These changing demographic profiles indicate that India has a unique 20 to 25 years' window of opportunity called "demographic dividend".

On the initiatives taken by the Government of India on skill development the Minister highlighted four initiatives:

• Of the 1896 government-run Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), in all of them the Ministry of Labour decided to introduce a PPP-based model of reform in 2007.
• About 2000 privately owned industrial training centres, now called private ITIs, existed in 2007, the number of which has grown to 6498 in India by 2011.
• The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is supporting the setting up of profit-making companies, since 2010, to promote skill up-gradation.
• The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has launched a National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF), in the country with the involvement of private sector industry in the provision of vocational education and training.

Speaking on the occasion the Secretary, Higher Education Sh. Ashok Thakur said that all the stakeholders including Vice Chancellor of Universities/colleges/Heads of Boards and principals must take steps to accept the NVEQF. He said there is a need to create multiple regulators. He informed that the community college projects started from this year have taken off very well with more than expected colleges and polytechnics starting the courses.

The inaugural function on NVEQF was organized by AICTE the apex body for making and maintaining the norms of technical education in the country, along with the Ministry of HRD.

Recognizing the demand for skill the country, Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) had also emphasized the need for a National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF) that provides a common reference framework for linking various vocational qualifications and setting common principles and guidelines for a nationally recognized qualification system and standard.