Vocational education mostly ineffective in India: Survey

The vocational education ecosystem in its current form has not succeeded in creating adequate employable job seekers in India as more than 60 per cent candidates and employers find these courses ineffective, according to a survey.
From an employment point of view, only 18 per cent of the students undergoing voc-ed (vocational education) courses get jobs, of which merely 7 per cent are formal jobs, according to TeamLease Services' research "Industry opportunity based vocational course design".
The survey was conducted among 105 organisation and 65 students.
The survey revealed that primary reasons for the disconnect between vocational education courses and the industry is the absence of rich academic content, inadequate funding and negative perception about these courses.

Another key issue is the lack of awareness about these courses as well as the lack of scope for continued learning, it added.
Moreover, voc-ed courses today do not have a structure for defined outcomes and, therefore, tend to be ineffective.

In fact, around 70 per cent employers feel the quality of training provided by the vocational institutes is not up to the mark, the survey said.
Further, it said, around 72 per cent employers said employability was considerably low among candidates who are from the vocational education stream.
This discontent over the training process has not only been felt by the employers, but also students (42 per cent), who agreed that the training quality is below par.

"With advancement in technology, improved infrastructure and easy access to domestic and global market, job profiles are continuously and rapidly evolving every day. The need of the hour is advanced vocational skills training, which can be successfully imparted under various vocational educational programmes," TeamLease Services Senior Vice President Neeti Sharma said.
The survey said according to the findings of the report, voc-ed programmes in India need to be demand driven, which will enable them to target specific sector skills and contemporary skills.