Skills development imperatives

FOR AN IMPATIENTLY OPTIMISTIC COUNTRY banking on a change in government to improve its fortunes, news that the newly-inducted Narendra Modi-led NDA government has established a dedicated Union ministry for vocational education and training (VET) ” a first in the nation™s history ” is as overdue as it is welcome.
Modeled on the lines of the UK™s Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, India™s Union ministry for skill development and entrepreneurship was hitherto a constituent of the jumbo ministry for skill development, entrepreneurship, youth affairs and sports. But since November 2014, it has become a full-fledged ministry in its own right.
Carved out to realise Modi™s grand Skill India mission, the new ministry is expected to make good the national skills deficit, the outcome of the neglect of VET for over six decades since independence. The official expectation is this ministry will bring some order in the chaos that has prevailed in the skills space under successive governments at the Centre and in the states.
However, six months after its formation and two ministers later, India™s skills ministry is still trying to find its bearings. It™s yet to form a distinct identity for itself and present a roadmap to address the ground-level challenges coming in the way of creating a viable and sustainable skills ecosystem countrywide.
Despite the launch of a high decibel advertising campaign of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and the STAR trainee-incentivising scheme (under which trainees who sign up for and complete approved VET programmes receive Rs.10,000 from the Union government), the pursuit of skills development continues to rank low on the aspiration quotient.
That™s because for all their lamentations about lack of skilled labour, Indian employers are less than enthusiastic when it comes to introducing attractive salary differentials between skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled employees.
Simultaneously, there haven™t been any visible initiatives in Central government ministries/departments to aggressively promote either legacy skills development or newly minted ones, even as a decision on the recommendations of a committee of secretaries on consolidation of various government skill development schemes hangs in the balance. Both the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) and NSDC have been brought under the jurisdiction of the new ministry for skill development and entrepreneurship. But the terms of engagement between the NSDA and NSDC under the new dispensation are hazy, best exemplified by the status of sector skill councils (SSCs).
SSCs are industry-led bodies tasked with the development of national occupational standards (NOS) for jobs in their respective domains under the national skills qualification framework (NSQF) guidelines, on the basis of which VET providers are required to design course material. Moreover, SSCs are also expected to play a role in the assessment and certification process of trainees. But SSCs are dependent on NSDC for funding. Hence, the NSDC is in a position to exercise control over them.
Again, since NSDA is in charge of the NSQF roll-out, it™s closely involved with the functioning of sector skill councils. Yet, as things stand today, NSDA has very limited power to use the stick if it finds a particular SSC has been compromising with the prescribed NSQF norms. With plans afoot to also introduce VET in a big way in schools nationwide as per NSQF norms, it™s all the more necessary that a foolproof checks and balances system is immediately put in place, to ensure SSCs and training providers are in strict compliance with the National Skills Qualification Framework.
The Union ministry for skill development and entrepreneurship has the potential to ensure that India is in a position to leverage its favourable demographic profile and make the long-awaited transition from a middle income nation to developed country status, ranking high on all parameters of human development. For this dream to be realised, the new ministry needs to step up and get down to its task in right earnest, as mere good intentions aren™t enough to skill the country™s near 500 million labour force.
Therefore the Union ministry of skill development urgently needs to consolidate all the skill development schemes run by other ministries under its jurisdiction. Until this process is completed, the ministry should ensure other ministries are not working at cross purposes by announcing similar schemes. Secondly, it needs to take the lead in establishing a national online portal providing data of VET skilled manpower in different trades. Third, the ministry should ensure that national occupational standards defined by industry for various job roles are respected by employers in hiring decisions through periodic audits even as it encourages corporate organisations to hire skilled and certified labour. More importantly, it needs to effectively monitor training outcomes reported by VET providers under various schemes, including STAR, and clearly define terms of engagement between NSDA and NSDC.
(Sumali Moitra is a Delhi-based independent communications consultant)