NEW DELHI: Reimagining Vocational Education and Career Guidance for School Students was the topic of a one-day consultation session held by the Ministry of Education. On December 16, 2022, YuWaah and UNICEF collaborated to organise the one-day workshop. The topic of envisioning and redesigning vocational education courses was extensively debated. Aspirational disconnect and information asymmetry in the adoption of vocational education schools, as well as offering a gender perspective to vocational education, were also focused on. Life skills, both vertical and horizontal, were also important.
An official statement states that the goal should be to equip students with skills such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, robotic process automation, and cybersecurity in order for vocational graduates to compete in the global economy. This is in light of the recently launched National Education Policy, 2020. During the one-day programme, it was also emphasised the importance of creating virtual laboratories to ensure that all students have equitable access to high-quality practical and hands-on experience.
The feedback from students who have participated in vocational programmes, such as multi-skilling courses and information technology courses, was also helpful to the consultation workshop.
The consultation workshop and two roundtable discussions with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Directorate General of Training (ITI), PSSCIVE, Bhopal, NCERT, CBSE, NCVET, and AICTE were presided over by Sanjay Kumar, Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy.
Numerous specialists from PwC, YuWaah, Civil Society organisations, the state education department, practitioners and organisations working in the domains of vocational education and career counselling, corporates, current and former students, and others attended the workshop and roundtable discussion.
The Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy made the point during the keynote speech that India needs to catch up to other nations in terms of formal vocational training for the workforce during the student years. Such problems have been noted by NEP 2020, and it has recommended solutions, he continued.
Ms. Dhuwarakha Sriram, Chief of Generation Unlimited (YuWaah), Youth Development and Partnerships, and Terry Durian, Chief of Education, UNICEF, also spoke at the consultations.
The current systems of career counselling in schools, as well as the most important lessons and best practises, were discussed at the second roundtable. According to the Secretary of DOSEL, the best solutions should concentrate on developing a scaled, quick, and sustainable institutional model of career counselling in schools that makes use of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. He added that it was necessary to map resources and compile them into a database. The function of physical interventions and career counselling that may be done in schools themselves was also discussed in discussions about career assistance.
