National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to significantly transform the nation’s educational system. The policy promotes inclusiveness, flexibility and comprehensive growth in education. It focuses on developing 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving
It emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary learning opportunities, encouraging research and innovation, and aligning curricula with international standards.
The Third Anniversary of National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) and 2nd Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam , will be celebrated in Delhi on July 29-30 and will be inaugurated by Hon. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The event will witness a congregation of representatives from various academic sectors.
Skill education in India is on the cusp of a transition in India’s Education landscape.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 heralds the country’s potentially explosive growth of skill education since it requires all educational institutions to integrate vocational education into their offerings through internship-embedded and hands-on learning to improve students’ industrial preparedness and practical abilities. The NEP 2020 emphasises skill-based education and training to bridge the gap between academia and industry.
NEP also emphasises the importance of teacher training and continuous capacity development of teachers to boost learners’ employability and vocational skills at all levels. The quality of skill training has to be enhanced by identifying, designing and developing vocational courses that meet the common norms and skills standards identified at the national level.
As we refer to reskilling and upskilling the youth, we aim to achieve a distinct skill set. The skill set typically comprises the educational qualification, transferable skills and personal attributes. Developing one’s skill-set, level of development, preparedness, clarity of goals and self-confidence would constitute the level of employability or, in other words, the Employability Quotient (EmQ).
Blending and implementing skilling in education will enhance employability, further mitigate poverty, utilise demographic dividend, socio-economic empowerment of underprivileged sectors, achieve economic growth, reduce social challenges, and result in economic inclusion.
As far as institutional mechanism is concerned, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the scheme – Prime Minister Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) have resulted in achieving considerable spin-offs.
The need of the hour is to ensure a pipeline of talent as envisaged by the Prime minister while aspiring to achieve a “tech decade”.
Through various national schemes abiding by the terms of reference of the National Education Policy (NEP), education and skilling have been integrated and new-age skill education programmes have been identified to create a workforce well-equipped with 21st-century skills.
The release of an enabling framework National Credit Framework (NCrF) further empowers, facilitates, and allows the stakeholders while giving them the flexibility to cater to their specific academic and skilling needs.
Skill education in India is now a well-structured pathway with competencies/National Occupational Standards that describe the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to undertake a particular task or job to a nationally recognised level of competence as the building blocks to inform qualification units.
The National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) theoretically makes it possible to drive competency-based training for every job role in the industry.
From the foundational stage to higher education, NEP aims to equip students with the vital competencies and abilities to thrive in a rapidly growing world. The role of NEP in skill development is to create a generation of skilled students ready to take up challenges and opportunities of the future.
Skill Education programs will facilitate meeting the aspirations and needs of our YOUNG NATION. With the gradually expanding nature of our young demographic distribution, accounting for nearly 28 per cent of the global workforce, we can surely count ourselves as a young nation.
The UGC guidelines on imparting the vocational degree recommend a judicious mix of generic subjects and domain subjects to be taught each semester at the UG level of skill education. This is yet another step to equip the students with generic subjects like Corporate Ethics and Governance, Entrepreneurial Skills, Employment Readiness, and Environment Studies aligned with future needs. The choice of such generic subjects prepares the students for the 21st-century workforce & enables them to have a holistic approach.
The spirit of the New Age Skill-based programmes is to break stereotypes, to go beyond definitions of the past, helping students to acquire specific job roles that would help support their families and accelerate the economy of the nation.