The significance of vocational training in India is assuming more significance from an employability point of view. This is because of the fast growing young population index in India. In the year 2011, 54 per cent of the Indian population was under the age of 25, while the average age in the case of most of the developed countries is between 30 to 41 years. This is the case with China too. It is estimated that in 2020, manpower shortage across the globe will be 56.5 million, while in India, there will be an excess of 47 million people.

A younger India

The above estimates show that, while rest of the world is aging, India will be young. This is in all respect good news for us Indians and if we need to reap the benefits of such a young population, we need to have a skilled workforce. Many of the recent surveys and the industry sources says that majority of the Indian graduates are not employable. This is because Indian graduates lacks in skills and competency required by the industry.

The education institutes in India have not been able to supply the required manpower for the industry, even with such a young population. This raises serious concerns about kind of education system we have in place. Last day there was a report by NASSCOM saying that only 25% of the engineering graduates who pass every year are employable. This shows the sorry affairs of state in India.

Converting the human assets into skilled workforce

It is an urgent requirement that we transform our human asset into skilled workforce or the asset may soon become a liability for the country.

Converting our human assets into skilled workforce is possible through vocational education. Vocational education is a combination of theoretical and practical learning, which will equip the students with the right kind of skills as required by the employers. In India we have been long following vocational education through the government funded Industrial Training Institutes and other private centers for vocational education.

In India, vocational education is always related to vocational skills, but there are various other fields that can be placed in the group of vocational skills. For instance, consider a general MBA, where an MBA in operations can be considered as a vocational skill.

Money matters in education

In India, the government spends USD 600 billion annually on education, which makes India comparable with the education sector of any of the developed world in terms of spending. The government is also keen on increasing the spending on the education.

It is estimated that the revenue in the field of private education will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 19 per cent over a period extending from 2011 to 2015. Vocational training is now becoming a attraction for private education players and among students.

The Indian education system is in a poor state with about just 12 per cent of the students who enroll into the 1st grade completing their 12th grade education. The survey conducted by various organizations has come out with worrying results in terms of literacy and some has placed Indian in the bottom of the list.

India will be able to achieve inclusive growth only if major steps are taken to uplift the students in terms of education and literacy and give them vocational training for making them suitable for taking up jobs. Separation between private and public is important in order to bring about scalability and to improve skills on a war footing. Speed of execution is very essential in order to bring about a positive impact.

Initiatives in the field of vocational education in India

Different state governments across the country have started with many initiatives in the area of vocational education. Andhra Pradesh is a good example in this direction with the state government partnering with education agencies to provide vocational training to students who fall below the line. The fee and other expenses are reimbursed by the government and many of the students have managed to take up better jobs. The training extends over a period of 400 hours and is offered in the areas of retail and customer service and marketing. The programme has been able to place more than 70 per cent of the students with leading companies in India such as Café Coffee Day, HUL and Big Bazaar. There is huge demand for such courses among various industries.

Indian graduates lack skills

Majority of the graduates in India lack the skills as required by the industry and some kind of training is required for them to be employable. Moreover, the companies are reluctant to pay for trained work force as the wages will go up.

The situation in India in terms of the young population as of 2011 is of great advantage to the country. But to reap the benefits of the advantage requires constant effort from the part of the government to improve the vocational education of the country. To make such a huge population trained required planned effort for short term, medium term and long term.

India facing supply shortage

It is estimated that about 109 million individuals will be of employable age during 2007 to 2012. To this an average of 89 million individuals will be added, out of which 13 million will be graduates or post graduates and 57 million will be illiterates. There will be considerable increase in demand for vocationally trained and graduates and will constitute 23 per cent of the increase in demand during 2012. Still India will face shortage in terms of employable graduates during 2012.

In India, most of the employers do not compulsorily require a vocational training certificate while hiring employees. As a result most of the students go for graduation and when they are hired, the employers say that there is skill gap. In most of the cases the employers hire unskilled people and the students do not have a reason to go for a certification.

If we need to bridge the gap between supply and demand in the case of skilled employees, we need to strengthen the vocational education in the country. The capacity of the vocational training system in the country is just 5 million a year and the requirement is about 50 million. These figures explain the condition of vocational education in the country.