Vocational education programs have made a real difference in the lives of countless young people nationwide; they build self-confidence and leadership skills by allowing students to utilize their unique gifts and talents.
“We have a need for vocational education and training in order to build a future workforce.”
What is vocational education:
Vocational education is designed to prepare students for industrial or commercial employment. It can be acquired either formally in trade schools, technical secondary schools, or in on-the-job training programs.
Students learn computer skills, photography, culinary, arts, fashion design, interior design and cosmetology in order to enhance their knowledge and skills for a certain career path.
Vocational education and training allow students to gain practical experience in their chosen career path before they even graduate. The education policy recommends the introduction of vocational education from grade 6 onwards to provide access to high-quality skills to all students, that can enable them to a clear and recognized pathway to employment.
In general, there is a pattern of education that has been followed for a long time but this traditional education doesn’t make one job ready. It is a basic course that will not get you a job but will make you eligible to apply for different kinds of jobs, while vocational education is totally job-oriented course. With the right balance of these two, you can pave your way for success.
There are some major advantages of vocational training and education:
Its main focus is to work on practical skills. Vocational Training works on the basis of “Learning by doing”. It helps students to acquire the knowledge and competencies that they need to work proficiently in their chosen field.
- In a traditional classroom, students spend significantly more time in their physical classes and less time working on outside projects whereas, in vocational education, they spend many hours working on the practical skills and subject matter they learn in the course.
- It provides students with the opportunity to actively engage with their classmates, professors and get their first experience of working in a group.
- In vocational education, students devote their time and energy to pursuing their passion or a career that interests them.
The employability of students in our education system is a matter of concern. The personal advisory of the committee of E. Ahamad (former HRD Minister of India) told that only 25% of normal graduates from all the streams have employable skills but are hardly eligible to get any job. It is the need of time to provide vocational education to students. There are many steps that have been taken by many countries In this sector. According to a report released in 2008 by the board of the Planning Commission of India (now known as NITI AYOG, the THINK TANK of the government of India), only 10% of the Indian workforce could enjoy the skill training whereas in Japan 80% and 90% of South Korea.
The best way to improve the condition of employment is by making changes in our secondary and higher secondary education. There are some ways that can help to improve our education system:
- Schools should be allowed to provide skill-based training by recognizing the areas of interest of the individual students, this will ensure self-employment.
- There should be facilities for smart classes in all educational institutions. With different advanced devices, multimedia concepts and other necessary IT elements, students will learn in a better and modern way.
- Many more courses in fields such as hospitality and tourism, handicrafts, healthcare, textiles, photography, IT Retail, banking, and insurance can be added at the school level that would interest students to learn from.
- This training should be given to students from the age of 13 years, from 8th standard, for example, if a student opts for healthcare, he could learn to be a blood collection expert and later can add a diploma or degree to become a full-fledged pathology technician or nurse.
With this, our education system will improve and students’ futures will be bright and our country will become developed.
