Centre to certify CBSE vocational courses

Updated on: Friday, December 10, 2010

To overcome the shortage of skilled manpower in the service sector and to create job opportunities, the Human Resource Development Ministry will certify vocational training courses to be conducted, along with academic courses, by the Central Board of School Education (CBSE), in collaboration with industrial houses.

The courses will be conducted at various levels, from Class IX to Class XII, taking a student to the level of a postgraduate degree.

Disclosing this at a press conference here, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said a committee was constituted to work out the modalities, including the curriculum, and it would submit its report in three months.

R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland Limited, will chair the committee, which will include S.S. Mantha, chairman of the All-India Council of Technical Education; Ashok Thankur and N.K. Singh, both Additional Secretaries in the Ministry; and Subhash Khuntia, Joint Secretary. To begin with, the Ministry will start a course in automobiles as the sector has a huge employment potential. Mr. Sibal said 39 million students pass out of Class XII every year, but only one million get an opportunity to be empowered through vocational education. The students would be given a choice to undertake regular courses as well as vocational courses, the classes for which would be held after school hours so that the private sector could utilise the existing curriculum without any investment. The private sector would also help to create a cadre of teachers. There were about 100 courses available in the automobile sector alone, he said.

Mr. Sibal said 56 per cent of the country's economy and growth came from the service sector, but this was unsustainable what with the country's population crossing 1.2 billion. The system was aimed at providing multi-point entry to appropriate jobs. After automobiles, the target would be to overcome human resource shortage in information technology and telecommunication and construction.

Centre to certify CBSE vocational courses

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