Vocational Education must be integrated in all schools, higher institutions: MoE

A one-day consultation workshop themed ‘Reimagining Vocational Education and Career Guidance for School Students’ was organised at New Delhi by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with UNICEF and YuWaah.

Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Sanjay Kumar chaired the consultation workshop. Two roundtable interactions with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Directorate General of Training (ITI), PSSCIVE, Bhopal, NCERT, CBSE, NCVET, AICTE etc. were held.

On 16th December 2022, @EduMinOfIndia organized a one-day Consultation Workshop on Reimagining Vocational Education and Career Guidance for School Students with @UNICEF and YuWaah in New Delhi. pic.twitter.com/x5uGoRFmxM

— Ministry of Education (@EduMinOfIndia) December 17, 2022

During the keynote address, Kumar pointed out that India needs to catch up with other countries in terms of skilling the workforce through formal vocational training during the student years. According to him, National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has identified such issues and has suggested remedial measures.

He further noted that as per NEP, vocational education needs to be integrated into all schools and higher education institutions in a phased manner over the next decade.

Trades and Courses shall be chosen based on skills gap analysis and mapping of local opportunities to make it demand-driven. Concerted efforts from all stakeholders will be required to de-stigmatise vocational education and make it aspirational.