With technology becoming the core of everything during the pandemic, we have witnessed many advancements and usage of technology, which otherwise would have taken at least another six years. It almost feels like we have taken a leap of six years when it comes to the usage of technology in our daily lives.
Therefore, proper vocational education also demands the adaptation of technology at the Godspeed so that we can align our thoughts in such a way that a product should be manufactured in the least possible time and delivered via technology to the consumer as early as possible. In order to fight the economic crisis of pandemic, an individual should be skilled enough so that companies can hire him/her just because he has all the requisite skills to speed up their delivery process.
Our government should also give special focus on the vocation education in order to sail through the economic slowdown. Vocational education is the backbone of every developed nation. For example, China has a huge platform for vocational training. They make sure that their training reaches to the last mile of the country so that well-trained people can be placed in the industry. So, this sector needs a push from the government.
Here are some of the ways through which vocational education can be strengthened.
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AS SEPARATE ENTITY
In our country, vocational education is often clubbed with schools, colleges and universities. It needs to be given a distinct identity in addition to importance. The lack of nodal body to control this vocational education provided by the private players show there is a lot of miscommunication. This is the best time when any support from the government and a push in the vocational education can ensure a highly skilled India, which is a step towards self-reliance. The move will also attract a lot of investment. For example, industries go to China because they get trained manpower there and it’s easy any day to set up a company there as compared to other countries like India. It only takes a matter of a day to collect the manpower besides land and others. But, finding a skilled manpower is never an issue there. It’s a challenge in many other countries, where vocational education has not been promoted like other streams of education.
TRAINED MANPOWER IS THE NEED
As people have been losing jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, it shows how training has become a pivotal thing at the moment. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of training in every organisation and trained manpower. It has been seen that skill has always opened doors for many opportunities in our country. We need a big push to come out of the pandemic. There are lots of vocations which cannot be trained online such as stitching, hospitality and nursing. So, the government should give permission to start any such vocation. All the industries and institutions should embrace the change. With the kind of market we have, everybody has the issue of cash in hand. In our country, the penetration of vocational education is one of the lowest in the world.
MILLENNIALS SHOULD LEARN AND UNLEARN
The entire community especially the youngsters, who are in the age bracket of 21 to 35 year, they need to unlearn and relearn. With a lot of doors being closed, there are 1,000 new opportunities are also getting generated. But the problem is, we don’t have the skills required for these jobs. For example, during the pandemic, the number of websites created in last three months is almost equal to the websites created in a year’s time. A lot of new skills and avenues have opened up. New age skills like digital marketing, data analytics are in high demand.
LOCAL HAS BECOME THE NEW VOCAL
People have shifted to their own home cities because of safety reasons or they have lost their jobs. Now they need to know the skills which are in demand in their particular city. If you are in Bengaluru, you need to have IT skills; but when you are in Gujarat, you need to acquire industry skills to get jobs. People should identify skills they need and similarly find the best people/company who can acquire the best skills for that. In India, specialisation is talked about but rarely practiced. Example, you go to an ENT specialist when you have a throat/ear/nose issue, but you go to an ortho for bones. Similarly, why not going to a specialist for your career? Do career and skills deserve equal if not higher importance?
The writer is CEO, ICA Edu Skills. The views expressed