To help school dropouts, skills training needs a push

Against the backdrop of high dropout ratio in schools, the Centrally-sponsored scheme of vocationalisation of secondary and higher education (CSSVSHE) is aimed at helping students get easy placements. Even underperforming students can do a PhD in the skilling domain by just obtaining minimum passing marks in academics till postgraduation.

The dropouts who might otherwise have landed a job in some informal sector, thus getting deprived of social security benefits, can secure a job in the formal sector with the help of a Sector Skills Council (SSC) certification and by enrolling for a vocational course in school in Class 9.

The first pilot of CSSVSHE was launched in 40 schools in Haryana on September 3, 2012. Out of 209 students enrolling, 152 candidates were successfully placed – 25 in retail, 85 in security and the remaining 42 in IT/ITES.

The scheme is operational across 240 schools and has 23,000 enrollments in Haryana. “Going forward, we are looking to scale up the programme in 500 schools and across sectors like media and entertainment, agriculture, gems and jewellery, banking insurance and finance,” says KK Agnihotri, advisor, department of school education, Government of Haryana.

Nearly 90,000 students in 1,190 government schools across Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh are already a part of the scheme. However, the CBSE board students have to wait for some time before they reap the benefits. “We would work with CBSE and get the SSCs to help align the curriculum to the needs of the industry and also work to introduce new sectors. We will work with stakeholders to define a standard for the job roles and align it to the different levels of teaching,” says Dilip Chenoy, managing director and CEO, National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC). All of this, however, can happen only with the signing of a formal MoU between the two parties. “So far the MoU has not been finalised, it is under process,” says M V V Prasada Rao, director (EDUSAT and Vocational), CBSE.

Recently, the SSCs have started doing assessment of CBSE schools across various states, including Delhi, Sikkim, West Bengal and Jharkhand – very much in line with what’s happening in various state government schools, says Rajiv Mathur, head - standards and quality assurance at NSDC. Supporting the introduction of skills training in schools, Sanjeev Duggal, CEO and director, Centum Learning says,“Schools following the national skill qualification framework (NSQF) curriculum would not only achieve seamless integration with university education, but also create employable youth.”

Currently, NSDC has signed MoUs with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), University Grants Commission (UGC), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and 10 state governments.

However, additional skilling can just make you employable. “Look at skills as an enabling education paradigm where employability is built into education,” says Prof (Dr) S S Mantha, former chairman, AICTE to the students. AICTE has mandated skills training for 7,500 institutes from academic year 2015-16.

Why skilling?
You can attain a PhD equivalent in the skilling domain, independent of your academic excellence
If you drop out after class 12, but have done a vocational course from class 9, a NSQF Level 4 certification can make you employable in a formal sector
If you’re a school dropout and skilled informally, you can approach SSCs and get assessed under Recognition of Prior Learning for getting certified to enhance credibility in the job market

1. 350 schools in Maharashtra have enrolled 15,000 students for skills training
2. 240 schools in Haryana have reached out to 23,000 students
3. Himachal Pradesh has 18,000 enrollments across 200 schools