Question : Vocational Training in Schools

(a) the steps being taken to focus on skill-based education from primary
educational level which require large investments through higher
productivity and employability of the young people on the lines of Japan,
Germany and other countries by initiating vocational training at the school
level to make young people employment-ready and also to boost India’s
competitiveness; and
(b) whether the country is producing fewer skilled workers than required and if
so, the details thereof and corrective steps being taken in this regard?

MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL ‘NISHANK’)

(a) : Department of School Education and Literacy is implementing the scheme of
Vocationalisation of School Education under the umbrella of ‘Samagra Shiksha - an
integrated scheme for school education’, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. The scheme
seeks to integrate vocational education with general academic education with an aim
to prepare educated, employable and competitive human resource for various
sectors of the economy.
Vocational courses are taught to the students of class 9th to 12th who opt for
vocational subject in the schools covered under the scheme. At the secondary level
i.e. class 9th and 10th, vocational modules are offered as an additional subject. At Sr.
Secondary level, i.e. class XI and XII, vocational modules are offered as a compulsory
(elective) subject. Employability Skills module has been made a mandatory part of
vocational courses. It consists of Communication Skills, Self-management Skills,
Information and Communication Technology Skills, Entrepreneurship Skills and
Green Skills. There is a provision for arranging hands on training, field visits, on the
job training to students in industrial set up and guest lectures from industry. The
scheme is being implemented in 9735 schools across 32 states/UTs with an
enrolment of more than 11 lakh students.
(b): Government of India has been implementing a number of skill development
schemes/programmes across 22 Central Ministries/Departments for providing a
variety of skill development training on pan India basis known as Pradhan Mantri
Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY 2.0) 2016-20 with an objective to provide skilling to
one crore people under Short Term Training (STT), Recognition of Prior Learning
(RPL) and Special Project (SP) over four years (2016-2020). As on 17.01.2020, under
the scheme PMKVY 2.0, 73.47 lakh candidates have been trained, out of which 16.61
lakh candidates have been placed.
In addition, Long term training courses are offered under the Craftsmen
Training Scheme (CTS) through a network of 15,510 Industrial Training Institutes
(ITIs) located all over the country. Under the CTS scheme, 38.74 lakh candidates
have been trained.
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