Centre formulating National Vocational Education Framework

Updated on: Thursday, October 21, 2010

The centre is formulating a "National Vocational Education Framework" to secure the future of school students who fail to get higher education at the colleges, Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal said.

"We are working on National Vocational Education Framework and we hope to do it by this year. We want to include this from eighth standard," Sibal said at a higher education conclave organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Sibal said that the Centre is not only eyeing to empower over 200 million students who fail to get higher education by 2010, but also wants to secure career of those 150 million students who will not have access to colleges by 2020.

He said currently only 14 million or 12.4 per cent of 220 million school students finally reach colleges, but the Centre is planning to bring this number up to 40 million or 30 per cent by 2020.

The framework would be implemented by the respective state governments and certification will be offered by the Central Board of Secondary Education, the minister said.

Vocational training will have 10 levels with the first four between the eighth and 12th standards and the remaining above that.

The training courses will depend on the sectors or areas of employability. A tea producing region could have some tea related vocational training, Sibal said.

The minister hoped that the step would help India to outsource more trained manpower overseas. He appealed to the industries for greater participation in education as it is critical for a sustained double digit growth.

The UPA government is intended to introduce four legislations for education, accreditation, education malpractices and foreign education providers, Sibal said.

The minister also advised the IIMs to refurbish their curriculum to make them more India specific rather than producing management solutions for the west.

Centre formulating National Vocational Education Framework

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