Plugging the gap: Will upgrading 1,000 ITIs solve the skilling challenge?

While presenting the Budget, Finance Minister put 'employment and skilling' at the forefront. She also proposed aligning the course content and design of ITIs to the skill needs of the industry

Aravind’s parents think he has wasted the last three years.

On the face of it, they would be wrong. The 20-year-old last year collected his diploma in mechanical trade from the government’s Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in West Delhi.

However impressive as that sounds, Aravind has not landed the kind of job he dreamt of.

“I have been interviewed and rejected by multiple firms. My CV has done the rounds of all the local component manufacturers here, without much success,” he says.

His classmates echo the despondency, and so do the droves passing out of other ITIs. Major industry recruiters, they say, have little or no regard for their certificates, that they are not interested in graduates from ITIs and other short-term skill training institutes.

“Employers would either ask for practical experience or simply say that the course did not meet their needs,” says one of Aravind's friends.

Several faculty members in a couple of government-run ITIs in Delhi agree that the courses are becoming obsolete, and recruiters are moving away from ITI-certified candidates, or other short-term training institutes, leading to a decline in interest among students.

The voices are not going unheard.

As this newspaper reported on Monday, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship will soon release the first ever ranking of ITIs, says a top government official. Similar to the National Institutional Ranking Framework for higher education, ITI rankings will be conducted annually to help students and employers assess the quality of these skilling institutes.

This comes in the wake of the initiatives in this year’s Union Budget.

On July 23, while presenting the Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman put “employment and skilling” at the forefront of the government’s priorities. The upgrade of as many as 1,000 ITIs through collaboration in a hub-and-spoke model, which will include aligning the course content and design of ITIs to the needs of industry, along with a slew of job  creation schemes, formed the core of this theme.

The scheme to upgrade the ITIs will have an outlay of Rs 60,000 crore over the next five years, with the Central government providing Rs 30,000 crore and state governments Rs 20,000 crore. The rest will be mobilised by industry.

“Upgrading our ITIs will significantly improve infrastructure, provide cutting-edge equipment, and cultivate an environment conducive to high quality training. This initiative will not only enhance the employability of our youth but also align our vocational education system with global standards,” Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, told Business Standard.

ITI ecosystem

Started soon after Independence, ITIs were meant to create employment for the youth and provide a steady supply of skilled and semi-skilled vocationally trained workers to the fledgling industrial sector.

The total number of ITIs today stands at nearly 15,000. Of these, nearly four out of five are privately run. Some of them are no bigger than a small shop, and manned by a single “faculty member” or owner.

Data from the National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT), which regulates vocational education in the country, shows that of the total 2.6 million available seats in 2022, only 47 per cent (1.24 million) were utilised. Similarly, of the total 239,000 sanctioned posts for instructors, close to 57 per cent (137,000) are still vacant.

“The problem is twofold. It is true that recruiters are not very enthusiastic about recruiting from our institutes. Second, students are supposed to self-report their placement to their alum ITIs. Students generally do not do so. Thus, it is really difficult to gauge the real impact of the ITI training on them,” said an instructor requesting anonymity.

On the placement front, there is no comprehensive database. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour recommended to the skill ministry last August to “seriously” consider establishing a placement and entrepreneurship cell in the ITIs and upload data on the employment status of their graduates.

“The committee reiterates the need for the Directorate General of Training to consider making it mandatory for ITIs to upload data on the employment status of their passouts. It should also commission a study to collect more detailed information on the employment outcomes of ITI pass outs,” the committee noted.

Big task ahead

Under the new upgradation programme, 200 institutes will be developed as hubs while 800 will be developed as spokes under collaboration with industry, which will also entail capacity augmentation of five national institutes for training of trainers.

Ramesh Alluri Reddy, CEO, Teamlease Degree Apprenticeship, says that by bringing ITIs back to the centre stage, the initiative aims to tackle the pressing issues of skilled trainer shortages, resource crunches, ineffective placement methods, outdated curricula, and poorly equipped labs.

“The hub-and-spoke model will also integrate robust apprenticeship programmes, particularly degree apprenticeships, providing hands-on experience and practical training that bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world application,” he added.

Efforts to upgrade ITIs are not new. In 2017, the skill ministry started implementing STRIVE (Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement), a five-year (later extended to May 2024) World Bank-assisted project aimed at improving the relevance and efficiency of skills training provided through ITIs across the country. The project covered a total of 500 ITIs (467 government, and 33 private) at a cost of Rs 2,200 crore. Seven years later, the latest government data shows that only Rs 570 crore has been released till December 2023.

Labour economist Santosh Mehrotra says the upgradation of only 1,000 ITIs in the country is like a drop in the ocean. The foundational problem with India’s skill development programmes has been that they have been government-financed and government-managed, with very little industry engagement.

Until 2006-07, there were hardly 1,500 private ITIs  (managed by individual entrepreneurs, private organisations, corporate entities, educational trusts, societies, and non-governmental organisations). 

Later on, the prescribed NCVT norms with regards to building infrastructure, equipment, pedagogy, and faculty were relaxed, resulting in a disproportionate growth in the private ITIs. 

On the other hand, the industry did not put money into these establishments. “We wait to see what form of industry engagement takes this time around,” says Mehrotra.

A reset of the skilling architecture is crucial to leverage and recoup the demographic dividend and prepare an employable workforce by bridging the aspirational mismatch that exists between the youth and the skilling programmes.

Aravind and his mates wait with bated breath, hoping they have not wasted their years.