New Delhi: A Parliamentary committee has found that students are not so eager to join vocational courses being offered as they find such courses inferior and do not foresee getting dignified and lucrative employment after completion of such courses.
“This is evident as a large number of seats for various vocational and professional courses remain vacant because of various reasons, such as high fee structure for such courses, relatively longer career path, lack of lucrative employment opportunities after completing such courses etc,” the Committee on Government Assurances said in its latest report.
Dr M Thambidurai, chairman of the committee in the report observed that it is "only an irony that though there is demand for a skilled labour force in a number of fields, such as civil engineering, architecture etc., but lesser students are taking up courses in these fields".
“Further, talented individuals in many professional fields are also opting to go abroad, in spite of shortage of manpower in the field of engineering and computer science in the country,” said the report.
The committee observed that one of the reasons for the rapid industrial and economic development of economic powerhouses, like the USA and China, is that they made high-quality investments in education, training their people and promoting research and innovation.
“Our country also needs to develop a well-coordinated and robust system of imparting vocational training and skill development to students to spread prosperity and contribute towards economic development,” the committee stated.
In response, the UGC chairman said that several measures have been taken to alleviate the low status of skill and vocational education which include the launching of the national credit framework, which would make vocational and skill education very aspirational.
The UGC chairman further said that measures like integration of skill education as part of regular education; establishment of skill education centres in all the higher educational institutions; and introduction of the Professor of Practice Scheme, which enables synergy of academics and industry to ensure that teaching and training module in higher educational institutions are developed as per latest requirements of the industry have also been undertaken.
Read More
