Vocational Training: 'All Theory And No Practice'

The government-run vocational training system in India has a total annual training capacity of about 28 lakh (2,800,000) students. But most curricula 'followed' at institutes imparting vocational training have little relevance for wage or self-employment. Mahita reports on the macro-picture.

Some 17 ministries and departments are involved in the provision and financing of vocational education and training in India with total annual training capacity of about 28 lakh (2,800,000) students. But as with many matters managed by our governments, the vocational training system is full of superlatives and potential on the one hand, and inefficiency on the other. But first, a look at how vocational training is setup in the country. 

What is vocational training? 
Vocational training refers to the imparting of specialised skills and knowledge, and instilling social and political attitudes and behaviour patterns essential for successful economic activities by people engaged in dependent employment, self-employment or subsistence work. (See: A Guide to Curriculum Revision and Development, in the references.) 

Vocational training can be of various types depending on the way it has been acquired. 'Formal training' refers to all training courses held in state or private (but state-certified) institutions and regulated by state guidelines. 'Non-formal training' covers all forms of training which takes place without being subject to state guidelines. In-company apprenticeships, both in formal or informal sector enterprises, is one of the most common forms of non-formal training. This kind of training also includes all programmes and projects offering skills-upgrading for those already active on the labour market, but who wish to extend their competencies by attending evening or weekend courses. 

Separate from formal and non-formal training is 'Informal training', which denotes practical learning in the family, or traditional, largely unsystematic learning in small and micro enterprises in the informal sector (unsystematic in the sense of no deliberately devised curricula). 

There are no prerequisites for anyone to acquire vocational training. Both men and women can get trained at any time during their life. Studies have already proven that formal education is not a prerequisite for acquiring practical skills for income-generation, especially in the context of the informal sector. (However, as will be highlighted in a later section, India's formal vocational training system often creates minimum educational prerequisites leading to exclusion of those with lower levels of education.) 

The system 
The terms 'vocational education' and 'vocational training' are often used interchangeably, but do not mean the same. In India, vocational education falls under the charge of the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD). The Ministry oversees vocational courses being offered in school Grades 11 and 12 under a Centrally Sponsored Scheme called 'Vocationalisation of Secondary Education' since 1988. Only the schools affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) offer the courses in accordance with the Board's Scheme of Studies and the course structure. The courses are of two-years duration and span 6 major disciplines. 

Some examples of vocational education courses: dairying, farm machinery & equipment (Agriculture), accounting and auditing (Business and Commerce), electrical technology, air conditioning and refrigeration (Engineering and Technology), X-Ray technician, health care and beauty culture (Health and Para Medical), and preservation of fruits and vegetables, food services and management (Home Sciences and Humanities). 

Vocational training on the other hand broadly refers to certificate level crafts training (in India) and is open to students who leave school after completing anywhere from grades 8-12. Programmes administered under the Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS) are operated by Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and Industrial Training Centres (ITCs). This scheme falls within the purview of the Directorate General of Employment and Training (DGET), under the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MOLE). 

At a higher level, the technical education and vocational training system in India produces a labour force through a three-tier system: 

• Graduate and post-graduate level specialists (e.g. Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and engineering colleges) trained as engineers and technologists. 
• Diploma-level graduates who are trained in polytechnics as technicians and supervisors. 
• Certificate-level craft people trained in ITIs as well as through formal apprenticeships as semi-skilled and skilled workers. 

According to the Constitution of India, the central government and the state governments share responsibility for vocational training. The DGET is the nodal department for formulating policies, laying down standards and other technical requirements for vocational training. It also governs a number of specialised training-related institutions. The ITIs, both public and private, operate under the general guidance of the DGET. The office of the DGET is at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Shram Shakti Bhawan, New Delhi. It's website is dget.nic.in. 

Two bodies – the Central Apprenticeship Council (CAC), a statutory body and the National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT), a non-statutory body – operate as advisory institutions. The most important NCVT functions involve: establishing and awarding National Trade Certificates in engineering and non-engineering trades, prescribing standards for syllabi, equipment, space, duration of courses and methods of training; arranging trade tests and laying down standards of proficiency required for the National Trade Certificate; recognition of training institutions for the purposes of issuing National Trade Certificates and laying down conditions for such recognition. The State Councils for Vocational Training (SCVTs), as well as Trade Committees have been established to assist the NCVT. They advise the state government on training policy matters and are supposed to co-ordinate vocational training in each state. 

Coming to curriculum, vocational training devotes 70 per cent of time to practical instruction while the rest is theory. The Central Staff Training and Research Institute (CSTARI) at Kolkata is responsible for preparation of draft curricula and their revision from time to time. The DGET's Curriculum Development Section coordinates this work. It scrutinises draft curricula and obtains approval of the NCVT. The periodicity of revisions depends on the technological changes taking place in industry in each trade. Generally, the introduction or revision of curriculum is based on recommendations made by NCVT. This should be done in consultation with relevant trade committees whose members are drawn from industry, technical institutions and DGET institutes. 

The reality 
However, all of the above is how things should be. In reality, most curricula 'followed' at institutes imparting vocational training have little relevance for wage or self-employment of the trainees. Plumbing courses which have been running for the past five decades continue to be taught irrespective of the market demand for plumbers in the region. 

For instance, when you drive down from Delhi to Nainital, the region surrounding Haldwani at the foothills of Nainital is extremely fertile and agriculture dominates the rural economy. You will find hundreds of tractors in the area but not a single local ITI or any other VT institute offers a course for tractor-machinery repair. This highlights a typical problem of the country's VT system in general - there is no provision of flexibility to tailor the courses around local vocational training demands. 

According to Satish Kumar, Training Officer, DGET, MoLE, "even in the cases when the courses offered do not meet the market demands, the Principals of the ITIs have the mandate and the duty to counsel the students accordingly and encourage them to obtain company apprenticeships under the Apprenticeship Training Scheme, for instance". This scheme is developed to ensure hands-on training experience among students which significantly increases their employability. The students typically train with the industry for anywhere from 6 months – 4 years coupled with 30% theoretical classes. "In fact we are now concentrating on spreading this message even at the Panchayat levels. There is only a certain amount of influence that we can exercise in our decentralised structure," says Kumar. 

Additionally, both the HRD and Labour Ministries have been reviewing their respective systems of vocational education and training to make it market driven. According to the Planning Commission's 2003-2004 document, the Vocationalisation of Secondary Education scheme has been evaluated by a number of expert groups including the Working Group on Vocational Education that was set up for the Tenth Five Year Plan. On the recommendations of this group, the scheme was recast for the Tenth Plan as Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). But the scheme has not also gone down well with the stakeholders due to logistic and academic constraints that require streamlining of the courses and establishment of strong industry – institution linkages. 

There have been other signs of malaise. As against the target laid down in the revised policy of diverting 25% of senior secondary students to the vocational stream by year 2000, only 10% of students opted for the vocational stream. Put this finding together with the low levels of wage and/or self-employment among ITI graduates and the cause and affect become obvious. The present set of skills being taught at various vocational training institutes are not fetching gainful employment which is why few students wish to opt for the vocational stream. The skills being offered do not reflect the demands of the market which is why the market cannot and does not absorb the students with those skills. 

One of the main reasons for the lack of market responsiveness among vocational training courses is the limited or no participation of the industry in contributing to curricula development. It is the industry which has to finally employ the training graduates. Hence, their mandate in determining what their future employees need to be taught can hardly be overemphasized. There are some rare cases of industry participation as members of Institute Management Committees (IMCs) for ITIs. But even such participation has been found to namesake, at best. 

There are still other challenges. Often, the ITIs and other institutes are enmeshed in such an impenetrable web of bureaucratic functioning that by the time any recommendations from the industry find their way into practice, they become irrelevant. Most crucially, industrial associations that integrate small and micro-enterprises of the unorganised economy are not invited to be partners of the state training systems. All this, in an economy in which 92% of the labour force is engaged in the informal or unorganised sector producing close to 60%of the GDP! 

Vocational training and the unorganised sector 
The unorganised sector has seven times greater labour intensity per unit as compared to the organised sector and is some five times less capital intensive. Thus, the unorganised sector is not just the hub for employment creation but also for manual skills. The need for skills development here can hardly be overstated. 

Studies have only reinforced the fact that the majority of workers in the unorganised economy of India have never been to vocational training institutions and/or school. On the other hand, the formal skills training system, because of its educational entry requirements and long duration of courses, is designed to exclude the underprivileged informal sector workers. 

Yet, given the vast size of India's informal workforce, the need to address the skills of informal sector workers is more pressing than any other. 

Training the millions left behind 
Vocational training could play a key role in bridging the gap that keeps millions of workers in the unorganised economy away from a better future. The needs of informal sector workers are complex, and mere training for income-generation is seen to be insufficient.

India's unorganised sector has seven times greater labour intensity per unit as compared to the organised sector and is some five times less capital intensive. Studies have only reinforced the fact that the majority of workers in the unorganised economy of India have never been to vocational training institutions and/or school. On the other hand, the formal skills training system, because of its educational entry requirements and long duration of courses, is designed to exclude the underprivileged informal sector workers.  

Vocational training could play a key role in bridging the gap. But training needs surrounding the informal sector are a complex, almost vicious web of circumstances for most workers. 

Take for instance the case of Seema Farid, living near Nainital. Seema is a 15-year old who looks like a malnourished child, lives and stitches clothes in a dirty, cramped 6 sq.metres-room with her three siblings waiting for her mentally unstable mother to drop in sometime.

Seema's father Mohammad Farid passed away when she was ten, leaving her mother Sanara and three younger siblings with no source of income – not even the sporadic amounts he could make doing odd jobs around the town. Lack of resources to support her four children left her mother mentally unstable and she started running away from home for a couple of days at a stretch. Gradually the periods she spent away from home grew longer and she came back only once in two months, not even recognising her children the way she did earlier. 

It is then that Seema resorted to the help of a neighbour, who had been stitching basic clothes for the slum people. With her help, Seema picked up basic skills and started stitching to feed herself and her siblings. After stitching for two years, she was earning an average of Rs.700-800 per month. This is still way below the 'dollar a day' level. Seema is visibly more aware of her economic prospects – or rather the lack of them – than others her age. She recognises that stitching the same clothes over and over again might fetch her just enough to sustain her family but does not promise any improvement in her living standard. 

Seema had to drop out of school when she was eight. However, she wishes that her siblings attend school. The financial implications of that prospect apart, she simply says that she does not have the ability to do that – meaning perhaps that it is beyond her physical capacity to manage and monitor the entire process of sending her siblings to school in addition to what she is already doing – earning a livelihood and cooking, feeding and helping her siblings with their daily chores. 

This was Seema's situation in 2004 - circumstances which are representative of many informal sector workers at various levels. Some aspects of her situation are evident of challenges that beset vocational training in the informal sector in general: 

1. Income generation as an "emergency" option: Many informal sector enterprises – micro, small or medium – spring out of the dire necessity for income generation. The immediacy of the need to generate income leaves no room and opportunity for an informed decision based on synchronisation of skills, market demands and general business sense. 

2. Training takes a backseat: in the above scenario, 'formal' or in fact any kind of marginally regularised training takes a backseat. Training becomes synonymous with improvisation – one starts generating income with the skills which are most 'handy' – which are either already present or which can be most easily acquired. 

3. No avenues for expansion: The entrepreneur usually becomes so preoccupied with sustaining the business at a minimum level that there is hardly any time and energy left for advanced training, linking up with other businesses, thinking of cost-saving and pooling mechanisms, credit facilities and other avenues of expansion of business. 

4. No formalisation: The business continues at its present minimum level. Continuation at the present level is itself considered as the best case scenario. There is no business advancement, also no progress towards the formal sector. 

The over-arching fact remains that with informal sector groups (as with even the formal sector) one can hardly divorce their economic prospects from their social realities. The majority of them are in their present state of economic deprivation because of reasons deeply enmeshed in their social-economic, at times even religious or cultural settings (especially in the case of women). 

While it is true that there are entrepreneurs who deliberately choose to remain informal for the many benefits it brings along in terms of tax benefits and freedom from bureaucratic hassles, there are also people who genuinely lack awareness and guidance towards other alternatives. Take for instance, Rajni Sarohi, a housewife in Nainital who had started and abandoned a home-based garment stitching business. She stopped stitching for the very low rates of return (Rs.500 for part-time work) it brought along for the time and energy she invested. Ask Rajni what she thinks her prospects are and she says, "I could take a loan, but then you should tell me where I should take it from and what I should do with it. You tell me what is best for me. How will I find that out without anyone's help? I already tried once." 

Rajni would benefit from what Amit Mitra, writing in an ILO working paper, calls 'training for empowerment'. Mitra writes that it is important to re-conceptualise training and move away from its narrow employment connotation. He points out that training needs to be seen as an input for empowerment, and not just for employment only. In self-help organisations and networks, Mitra writes that learning is not happening in the process of production, but also takes place through other external mechanisms such as negotiation. 

In addition, Mitra notes that training for empowerment would need to build up capabilities in people to shift from one profession to another, to obtain the freedom to make choices without losing status. In essence, he writes, what is required is the freedom to grow, to chose a career and develop it. 

Mitra's observations directly address the situations of the teenager who works to take care of her siblings as well as the houswife in Nainital. What is desirable is not just undergoing vocational training for income-generation but using training as a means to help the trainee – particularly girls and women – understand the market and its linkages with producers, suppliers and buyers, their own role and position to generate income and the various possibilities to do so. 

Moreover, only training aimed at empowerment, and not 'just' at employment can help poor women – given their socio-cultural background – identify (which is the first step towards acquiring) the kind of competencies needed to survive adequately and fruitfully in the commercial web. Training for empowerment will equip women to create conditions adequate for survival even when their present employment terminates. 

S P Mishra, author of Factors Affecting Women Entrepreneurship in Small and Cottage Industries in India, observes that issues concerning training and operation in the informal sector are even more complex for women simply by virtue of their being women. Women's entrepreneurial abilities are not always approved by their family; workloads are exhausting with the double burden of taking care of the home and family, as well as earning a livelihood; they enter into competition with less knowledge and training than their male counterparts; they have limited access to capital, with many banks doubting their credibility; often they are faced with a limited range of over-competitive occupations; they have to deal with institutional antipathy, where government departments and officials do not give priority to their applications and efforts. 

All in all, it is operative to recognise that the training needs and challenges of informal sector workers are far from being uni-dimensional. It is hardly a linear path leading from informality to formality. The challenges are enmeshed within the socio-economic conditions of the groups. Vocational training is one of the aspects along which these challenges can be addressed. What is required is a set of competencies which empowers the workers to make the right entrepreneurial choices. This is even more crucial for women operating in the informal sector.