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…
