The union budget is to be announced this week. What are the expectations of education industry from the post GST budget is observed by Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO & Co-founder, Next Education India Pvt Ltd for Elets news Network (ENN).
Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO & Co-founder, Next Education India Pvt Ltd
With this year’s budget around the corner, the education sector is looking forward to the attention it truly deserves. Firstly, it is expected that government will increase the outlay for the education sector to 6% of the GDP.
Secondly, It’s a known fact that development of technological infrastructure is a prerequisite for imparting quality education. To achieve this, the government should first take proper measures to utilise the existing technologies and infrastructure available in schools. In fact, this expectation is aligned to the recent promise made by the Finance Minister that this year’s budget would focus on infrastructural development.
Thirdly, the government should formulate policies and allocate adequate amount of money in the budget to initiate skill development in early learners as an early start will be more effective. Presently, most of the skill development initiatives are aimed at graduate and postgraduate students.
Fourthly, there is also a need to earmark a substantial part of the budget for teacher-training programmes. The government can enter into a partnership with private players to train teachers on the latest pedagogies and the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to ensure that teachers are abreast with the latest developments. Besides, there is a need to ensure fair remuneration for teachers because only then will they be motivated enough to fulfil their duties diligently.
As the Union Budget presentation date nears, there’s a lot of buzz in the education industry. Despite the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s indication that the upcoming Budget will not be a populist one, the industry has kept their hopes high. Ajay Kavishwar, Director – PR, Planning and Advocacy, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, observes education industry’s wish list from Union Budget 2018-19.
Ajay Kavishwar, Director – PR, Planning and Advocacy, The Akshaya Patra Foundation
The Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) benefits over 9.78 crore children across the country, providing them nutritional support as well as an incentive to come to school. It has been a vital cog in the wheel as far as the National Plan of Action for Children (NPAC) 2016 is concerned. The NPAC was formulated to address children’s rights with respect to 4 key priority areas: survival, health and nutrition, education and development, and protection and participation; the Mid-Day Meal Programme seeks to mediate in two of these directly.
With sufficient evidence to suggest that the Mid-Day Meal Initiative is having the desired impact, the next logical step would be to extend the scope of the initiative by transforming this ‘school lunch programme’ to a ‘school nutrition programme’. This could be done by including breakfast and snacks to further ameliorate children’s health and nutrition status. In this case, especially in the case of snacks, cooked meals could be replaced by ready-to-eat supplementation in the form ofmilk, cookies, etc.It would be beneficial if the Central and State Governments could explore the possibility of allocating them based on region-specific nutrition requirements of children.
The Mid-Day Meal Initiative also provides an opportunity to integrate millets—the indigenous nutritious foods—into children’s diet. This move will not just be beneficial to children, but also to farmers and even the environment. A collaboration between the Centre and State’s MDM and agriculture departments would be welcomed as it would balance the demand and supply, with procurement directly from farmers bringing them on board.
According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 report, India is home to 190.7 million undernourished people in the world—a significant portion of this comprising children. A range of welfare initiatives, including MDMS and ICDS, are already in place to tackle the issue of malnutrition in children. We can make the most of these welfare initiatives by introducing interventions such as the integration of millets in nutrition programmes.
Children will benefit from increased allocation of funds to allied programmes such as the SwachhVidyalayaProgramme under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. In promoting clean and healthy environment in schools, this programme facilitates hygienic and safe conditions for storage, cooking, and consumption of mid-day meal. Also, clean hand wash and sanitation facilities,which are integral to this initiative, lead to an overall positive learning experience.
The Karnataka Secondary Education and Examination Board (KSEEB) has switched to digital mode from its manual process of updating student details. With the SSLC exams due in March/April 2018, the State board schools across the state, are now updating student information onto the student tracking system (STS), writes T Radhakrishna of Elets News Network (ENN).
The STS was implemented by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Karnataka (SSA Karnataka) to record details of over 1 crore children across the state. While collection of this data was completed sometime ago, most of the information is already pre-filled onto the STS database. For SSLC registrations, the operator would only have to add the photograph of each student and take the digital signature as well as add the school code while submitting applications to KSEEB.
An ambitious Student Tracking System, in association with Infosys Foundation, is implemented. The programme is aimed at monitoring the academic progress, dropout rate and other aspects of about 45 lakh students from classes One to 10 in all government schools. Each student is assigned a unique identification number and progress is monitored to improve the academic performance and prevent dropouts, according to Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Tanveer Sait.
“The biggest benefit of the tracking system, department sources said, was in stemming the dropout rate. It will also help in streamlining incentives that a child avails of and reducing duplication.”
The SSA Karnataka started this online registration process in which the government will avoid duplicate document submission and fraudulent businessmen opening schools. The online registration process of Karnataka Students Tracking System Portal is completely online. This online registration process will run every year. However, the registration process will be done through the online at sts.karnataka.gov.in. The government also released a draft of fees structure for all schools. After the completion of registration process, all the schools will have to give the detail of students and teaching staff of the school.
Online Registration
All the schools will have to follow some easy steps to complete online registration on Students Tracking System Portal. First of all, the applicant school will have to visit sts.karnataka.gov.in official website. The applicant will have to click on “Registration” link. After that clicking on the registration link, a registration form will appear before applicant. On the registration page, the applicant will have to fill all the required information of the school.
After filling all the necessary details finally click on “Submit” button. Here is the Fees Structure of Karnataka Schools. The government has set up a fees structure for all the schools in Karnataka. All the schools need to remember, the Government of Karnataka has mentioned that this registration process of schools is mandatory.
Each student in the State will have a ninedigit unique code that will be tagged to his or her academic life under the School Tracking System. The number will be linked to data on their academic performance, details of schools, scholarships, and awards received. Data pertaining to nearly 1.01 crore schoolchildren — in government, aided and private schools — enrolled in classes 1 to 10 will be ready as part of an ambitious exercise by the Department of Primary and Secondary Education to map students’ academic record. The number can be keyed in by the school headmaster to access the records of the student.
The biggest benefit of the tracking system, department sources said, was in stemming the dropout rate. It will also help in streamlining incentives that a child avails of and reducing duplication.
PC Jaffer, Commissioner for Public Instruction, told media that the system would capture data in real time and help track a child’s academic performance. Officials could use the data to make inferences and intervene wherever necessary, and improve the quality of government schools.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that a comprehensive e-governance programme will be launched in the State to elevate all the public schools up to global standards. A master plan of Rs 21-crore has been approved for the project by the Government.
The chief minister said that through the project, the Government wants to ensure that every child in the State must have the academic qualifications of the standards to take on the students from any school in the world. The project is supposed to transform our schools to “centres of excellence”, he added.
The chief minister also said that the government will introduce a project to digitise the school libraries to improve their standards. He also suggested the school authorities to take the service of the alumni of the schools and made them part of schools’ development.
The chief minister inaugurated the hi-tech classrooms at Kottayam Rajas High School in Pathiriyad district.
Is Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) likely to be extended to 2020? Going by available information, it is likely. The Education for All movement of the Government of India, operational since 2000-2001, is aimed at the universalisation of elementary education in a time bound manner, writes T Radhakrishna of Elets News Network (ENN).
Initiated by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the programme envisage at developing human capabilities to all children through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode. It is a response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.
The Government of India, in 2011-12 fiscal allocated Rs 21,000 crore for this project. In 2015, the funds sharing pattern of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was decided to be in the ratio of 60:40 between Centre and States (90:10 for the eighth NorthEastern States and three Himalayan States) with effect from the year 2015-16. The revision has been done in view of the higher devolution of funds to the States from 32% to 42% as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.
Some State Governments namely Bihar, Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal had raised their concern about interim reduction of the central share of funding in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) from 65% to 50%, which has subsequently been rationalized to 60% based on the report of the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Rationalisation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
The programme set out with an objective to provide useful and elementary education for all children in the 6-14 age group and to bridge social, regional and gender gaps with the active participation of community in the management of schools, among others. As per the goals set in 2015 the programme sought to open new schools in those habitations which do not have schooling facilities and strengthen existing school infrastructure through provision of additional classrooms, toilets, drinking water, maintenance grant and school improvement grants.
Key Features
Programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.
A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.
An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.
An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country.
A partnership between the central, state and the local government.
An opportunity for states to develop their own vision of elementary education.
An effort at effective involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, school management Committees, village and urban slum level Education Committees, parent’s Teachers’ Associations, Mother-Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grassroots level structures in the management of elementary schools.
Objectives
To provide useful and elementary education for all children in the 6-14 age group.
To bridge social, regional and gender gaps with the active participation of community in the management of schools.
To allow children to learn about and master their natural environment in order to develop their potential both spiritually and materially.
To inculcate value-based learning that allows children an opportunity to work for each other’s well being rather than to permit mere selfish pursuits.
To realize the importance of Early Childhood Care and education and looks at the 0-14 age as a continuum.
2017: Education for All
Year 2017 has been a yet another landmark year in the field of education as ‘Education For All & Quality Education’ guided policy actions and decisions enabling transformation, that emphasized upon making education Available, Accessible, Affordable and Accountable.
Learning Outcomes
A frequent criticism against the RTE Act was that it did not adequately focus on issues promoting quality education in schools. Therefore, in a landmark step, the Rules to the RTE Act were amended in February 2017 to include, for the first time, the class wise, subject wise Learning Outcomes till Class VIII, thereby emphasizing the importance of quality education.
In this regard, Learning Outcomes for each class in Languages (Hindi, English and Urdu), Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science and Social Science up to the elementary stage have been developed. These are the basic levels of learning that children should arrive at the end of each class.
Subsequently, 21 States and UTs, including Jammu and Kashmir, have incorporated the Learning Outcomes in their State Rules, while the remaining States have initiated the process, it is expected that this will be completed by the end of this year.
All the States and UTs have translated the Learning Outcomes document in their regional languages, and they are circulating these to all the teachers, and also providing them with the requisite training. Posters for display of Learning Outcomes on the schools along with leaflets on Learning Outcomes for reference of parents have been developed and circulated to all States and UTs. An amount of Rs 91.20 crore has been released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India to all States and UTs for printing the Learning Outcomes documents, the Posters and the leaflets in regional languages, and for their distribution.
National Achievement Survey 2017-18
National Achievement Survey (NAS) which was earlier based on textbook content is now a competency based evaluation. As compared to only 4.43 lakh students who were earlier tested across Classes 3, 5 and 8, this time around 22 lakh students from around 1,10,000 schools across 700 districts of India (including rural and urban) were assessed in the year 2017- 18 (November 13, 2017) making it one of the largest sample surveys of student learning achievement.
This survey is an improvement over the previous cycles of NAS as it will be completed in the one full academic year. It will reflect the scores of the students and will be able to suggest academic intervention in the same academic year. District wise Result will be generated within 2 months of test conduction. NAS Reporting will show if the students’ learning levels are as per the learning outcomes of a particular grade. It will also look for association of school, teacher and students’ background variables with students’ achievements while analysing the data.
Through NAS 2017-18, it will be for the first time that the teachers will have a tool to understand what exactly the child should be learning in various classes, how to teach this through activities and how to measure and ensure that children have reached the required level. This will also help agencies at the District, State, and National level to conduct achievement surveys and assess the health of the system to improve upon the policy directives. Adding to this, for the first time, there will be detailed district-specific report cards for all the districts in the country.
Ravi Ranjan, Mission Director, Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society
To take care of huge skill gap and fulfill the ambitious skilling targets, the Government of Jharkhand is coming up with a comprehensive ‘State Skills Policy’ which aims at improving outcomes, expanding skill infrastructure with scale and speed, strengthening the skill development ecosystem, improving aspiration for skill development and incubating barefoot entrepreneurs, says Ravi Ranjan, Mission Director, Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society, in conversation with Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN).
What is the motto of Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS)?
The motto is to be the engine of sustainable economic growth in the state by providing highly skilled and productive manpower to the industries and sustainable livelihood and JSDMS must conform to the National Skill Qualification framework (NSQf) and Common Cost Norms. Training is conducted through Training Service Providers (TSPs), which can be private companies, NGos or government institutions Selection of TSP for executing skill development schemes does not involve any price discovery. It is an empanelment process through scheme specific RfP wherein the endeavour is to select Training Service Providers with proven track record. Target allocation to the TSP is done after proper assessment of its capacity to train.
Centre accreditation is through the SMART portal and associated processes of NSDC. Quality Assurance including centre infrastructure requirements, curriculum/ content, course duration, Train the Trainer and assessments is done through respective Sector Skill Councils (SSCs). Pay-out to TSPs is done as per payment milestones and per hour cost rates defined under Common Cost Norms.
Mobilisation of trainees is done by the TSP and selection of candidate is done after proper counselling, as per his aspiration and minimum qualification requirement of the respective trade of training. Support to the mobilisation process is also made by the state government with the help of district administration by conducting job fares.
What are the current schemes being undertaken by the mission society?
Currently, three schemes are being run by the State. first is Saksham Jharkhand kaushal Vikas Yojna (SJkVY) under which training centers are located up to block levels throughout the State so that training can be imparted at the doorsteps of the trainees. Second, Mega Skill Centers (also known as Deendayal Upadhyay kaushal kendras, DDUkk), which are aspirational centres of minimum 15,000 sq ft area setup with corporate support for knowledge transfer and placements. Third is Employability Excellence with College Education and Learning (EXCEL), under which training for soft/communication skills, and domain skills is given to college going students.
The first two programmes are both residential and non-residential, whereas EXCEL is a purely non-residential programme.
How much a trainee needs to pay towards training and boarding/ lodging expenses?
All the courses are totally free of cost with regards to training, course material and boarding/lodging. Payments are made to the TSP by JSDMS as per common cost norms.
How are the courses selected and how do you ensure that these courses meet the job market needs?
Since it is a placement linked programme, courses are conducted for trades which are market relevant, offer good salary package and match youth aspirations.
The scheme focuses on youths of the State in the age group of 18-35 years. Skill Development courses are aligned to highimpact sectors including Tourism & hospitality, Telecom, Security, Retail, Plumbing, Logistics, IT/ITES, Electronics, Domestic Worker, Construction, Capital Goods, BfSI, Beauty & Wellness, Automotive, Apparel, and Agriculture etc.
Another factor which is taken into account while selecting a trade is the placement tie-of TSPs with various employers.
What key challenges are faced by JSDMS in improving the skill ecosystem in the state?
The major challenge we are facing right now is the lack of infrastructure to take care of huge skill gap and fulfill the ambitious skilling targets. There is an urgent need of establishing a large number of quality training centres covering a wide spectrum of job roles. Though the national skill ecosystem along with NSQf and its range of Qualification Packs (QPs) provides plenty of options, development of curriculum for Job roles assessed to be in high demand in Jharkhand and not yet included under the NSQf, pertaining to traditional arts and crafts in Jharkhand and offering more broad based and relatively longer duration skill development courses through suitable merging of QPs or stacks of National occupational Standards (NoS) is an important issue.
As is the case in rest of country, people prefer conventional education to technical skill development. It has more to do with prestige than employment. The youth needs to be taught that almost all the jobs today require skills in one form or the other, which could be either technical domain skills or the soft skills. In order to make it aspirational, we need to associate a sense of pride with skills which could be done through rewards and recognition and upgrading the skill infrastructure to international standards. It is critical that skill development has vertical and logical horizontal pathways to ensure that skill development is not terminal in nature. Adequate placement commensurate to one’s abilities remains a major challenge and I believe this skill summit will go a long way in addressing the placement issues.
What are the steps being undertaken to overcome aforementioned challenges?
To address these issues the state is coming up with a comprehensive ‘State Skills Policy’, which will be launched in the skill summit. We aim at improving outcomes, expanding skill infrastructure with scale and speed, strengthening the skill development ecosystem, improving aspiration for skill development and incubating barefoot entrepreneurs. The state is giving incentives for capacity creation under Mega Skill Centres, embedding skills in academic education through EXCEL programme, preparing for Industry 4.0 through Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and entering into placement tie-ups with quality employers.
Tell us about the future plans, new initatives and policies of JSDMS.
We have many things lined up to make Jharkhand the ‘Skill hub’ of the country. Some of these are; Embedding Skills in Academic Education, Vocationalisation of Secondary and higher Secondary Education, integration of apprenticeship as part of competency based skill development courses, centres of excellence for training of trainers, opening of Migration Centres, making it mandatory to hire National Skills Qualification framework certified youth trained in Jharkhand for all relevant entry level jobs with the State Government entities and also with contractors pertaining to the workforce deployed on projects awarded by the State Government. We are also aiming at international collaboration for training and content development and placements and opening skill universities which will be developed as umbrella organisations for curriculum, content and certification in tandem with NSDC and SSCs.
With the interference of Information Technology in every sector, the careers in future will be totally different from now observes Prakash Menon, President, Global Retail Business, NIIT Ltd for Elets News Network (ENN).
Digital has pervaded all aspects of life and is dictating the manner in which people now live and work. The world has witnessed high impact with the rise of the modern, cutting-edge, automated digital office.
Prakash Menon, President, Global Retail Business, NIIT Ltd
Analysts are predicting that the workplace of the future will be a collaborative environment where human workers will rub shoulders with non-human colleagues (read that as Robots or Bots), with each side complementing the strengths of the other. Digitally-enabled jobs are going to be the new reality across sectors—from transportation, logistics, education, financial services and healthcare. While areas such as banking, retail and manufacturing are already on the path of automation and have digitized their day-to-day processes, the next level of growth in Digital will be driven by some of the new verticals mentioned above which will embrace technology with greater verve.
While all the Digital Transformation talk—of robots serving up pizzas, cars taking people everywhere without anyone being at the steering, diagnostics being performed on patients remotely—is all very well and portends a brand new world, it also raises significant issues and concerns.
Primary among them is the fact that in the emerging technology-led, high-tech environment, skills or should one say digital skills will play a significant part. While it is extremely exciting to hear about the potential of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud), and the immense possibilities they are opening up, one has to understand that they require an all new set of skills and expertise.
Creating value, creating jobs
Going forward, Digital Transformation is expected to be a major value creator for nations, especially India, which is taking firm strides in this space.
According to global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co, Digital Transformation is expected to create USD 1 trillion in value and sustain 55-60 million jobs in India by 2025! There is however a caveat. McKinsey says that of the figure of 55-60 million workers, which are expected to be sustained by India’s Digital economy in 2025, an estimated 40 million will need to be retrained and redeployed in new job roles.
Take the instance of India’s tech juggernaut—the IT-BPM industry, the earliest adopter of and catalyst for digital in the country—which is already focusing on future-proofing of its workforce through re-skilling in Digital technologies. Expected to the biggest generator of digitally-enabled jobs, the sector will require a whole new, digitally articulated generation of professionals who can add value to organisations.
Besides the tech sector, all other industry verticals too will opt for workers who fit their digital profiles. This also means that today’s learners (tomorrow’s knowledge professionals) have a wide spectrum of skills they can choose from, depending on the career path they want to embrace.
Today, unlike previous decades, it is no longer mandatory for students to go for traditional career choices such as engineering or medicine. As they say, there is life beyond that. The digital wave as we are all becoming aware, is throwing up a host of new domains that young learners can pick from while planning their future. They can in fact start soon after class 12, being the early birds in the realm of relevant skilling and make smart choices. Instead of targeting at the once coveted ‘Graduation’ degree, learners can decide to be more focused and aim for the skills that will be critical in the Digital age. In this way they can ensure that they are able to catch the attention of hirers, remain on top of the employabilityindex and are of course ‘job-industry-hour-one ready’.
And truly, in the existing Digital environment, the world is their oyster and options limitless.
Skills to aspire for and acquire
Among the hot skills that Class 12 pass-outs (especially those who are good at Math) can acquire is Business analytics, a technology that global research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. says will be deployed by 75 percent of the world’s leading organizations. To be equipped with Business Analytics skills, students will have to choose a course that exposes them to technologies such as SPARK, Hive, and visualization tools like Tableau and Qlickview.
Data Science is the other preferred field and here students must look for programs that focus on technologies like R programming, and SAS.
Students keen on a career in coding (especially in Java) can go for training in Mean Stack which covers skills in MongoDB, Express.js, Angular and Node.js. They can also consider a program in DevOps, which will train them to become developers while providing them an understanding of IT operational processes. Owing to the sweeping Digital wave, advanced programming skills are back with a bang and a course in DevOps would be in order.
Other exciting fields include Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics which are becoming popular, especially among Gen Y. To know more about these areas and find a fit here, students will have to enroll for courses that offer them insights into state-of-the-art automation tools and techniques. Machine Learning in particular is important, as in order to be skilled in AI implementation, students need to have expertise in Machine Learning techniques.
If they are looking for a career in Digital Marketing, (considered by McKinsey & Co to be a preferred skill in the current scenario), this would be the perfect time to join a program that teaches them all about e-mail marketing, blog promotions, and Facebook advertising.
As of now, there are a plethora of programmes that students can choose from post Class 12 to ready themselves for the 21st century. However, in selecting a training organization they need to be judicious and discerning, picking only the brands that are known for their market leadership, longevity and experience, reliability, high quality of content and flawless delivery. Global skills and talent development major NIIT, a household name in India, is offering online courses in many of these industry segments and preparing young learners for the future, which as analysts will proclaim, is already here.
The Government of Jharkhand through its different departments is running various skill development schemes for the skilled workforce in the State. The role being played by Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS) in effective implementation of every scheme and in skilling youth in the State, shares Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS) Chief Executive Officer Amar Jha.
Amar Jha, Chief Executive Officer, Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS)
JSDMS was registered on 1 October, 2013 under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 to function as an autonomous organisation under the Department of Planning and Development, Government of Jharkhand (GoJ). The GoJ notification number 998 dated August 11, 2016 established JSDMS as an autonomous body under Department of higher, Technical Education and Skill Development.
Skill Development Schemes:
Pilot Phase: Skill Development programmes in the State commenced with the launch of a pilot phase in 2016 by signing of a MoU with 21 Training Service Providers (TSP), delivering training programme at 38 centers and completing about 2,545 trainees and placement of 731 beneficiaries.
Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Yojana (SJKVY): The skilling programme picked up pace in the State with the launch of SJkvy (Main phase) by Chief Minister Raghubar Das on 27 December, 2016. JSDMS signed MoU with 39 Training Service Providers (TSPs) running National Skills Qualifications framework (NSQf) compliant skill development programmes in about 30 industrial sectors providing benefit to about 25,000 youths of Jharkhand, aged between 18 and 35.
Deen Dayal Upadhyay Kaushal Kendra (DDUKK): JSDMS made a big leap in skill sector with the launch of five DDUkk also known as Mega Skill Centres, on 15 July, 2017. As of now 15 such centres are running in the State, providing training to about 7,000 youths. Each DDUkk works in line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These centres provide scale, speed and standard to the skill programmes in the State. The infrastructure facilities at DDUkk required a minimum area of 15,000 sq ft for training of 2,000 candidates in every centre annually delivering multi sector curriculum of at least 576 hours duration, with Industry alignment.
Employability Excellence with College Education & Learning (EXCEL): It is a unique programme designed for 10+2 pass out college-going and non-collegiate students of the State. The scheme helps students who do not want to continue with traditional education in the college in choosing alternate career options. Other than trade skills, the programme provides 405 hours of soft skills and life skills training to the college students to make them employable as per the industry requirement. The scheme aims to benefit 51,000 youths in nearly 100 colleges in next four years.
Center of Excellence (CoE): With a vision to provide world-class training programmes to the youth of Jharkhand, JSDMS, has signed MoU with Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Singapore. The expert team of ITE has conducted On Site Situation Analysis of skilling in Jharkhand from 1-4 August 2017 and submitted its report on the 9 October, 2017. The project envisages a brown field development in ITI hehal in 2018 and a Green field development in Pundag in the next three years, providing world class training in seven industrial sectors. The CoE will also encompass a Training of Trainers Academy (TOTA) and a Research and Development Centre for evolution of a robust skill ecosystem in the State. The programme envisages not only placement in Jharkhand and India but meeting overseas industry expectations as well. It will help the youth of Jharkhand to get attractive salary package and better lifestyle.
Skill Development programmes in the State commenced with the launch of a pilot phase in 2016 by signing of a MoU with 21 Training Service Providers (TSP), delivering training programme at 38 centers and completing about 2,545 trainees and placement of 731 beneficiaries.
Skill Summit 2018
The Government of Jharkhand hosted a very successful Global Investors Summit (GIS) Momentum Jharkhand in february 2017 and signed 210 MoUs attracting investment from all over the world. Three ground-breaking ceremonies have been held, realising those MoUs on the ground. The industries being set up in Jharkhand will require skilled human resource as a key component for a sustainable economic model. The visionary leadership of the State has quickly realised the need and has formulated a mutually supportive strategy to skill the youth of Jharkhand, matching the expectations of those industries. Skill Summit is planned to be held on the very next year of Momentum Jharkhand to bring the focus on skilled human resource for the industries.
Skill Summit 2018 being organised on 12 January, 2018 will showcase the skill ecosystem of Jharkhand, whereby several ministers, eminent personalities of respective field, industry leaders, diplomats, country partners and government officials will attend the day-long event.
The summit will also host three sectoral seminars on contemporary tracks and 36 stalls by various Industries, Sector Skill Council (SSC) and Mega Skill Training partners presenting the robust skill ecosystem of the State.
The eventual goal of any skill development programme is employment for youth. To demonstrate employability of the skilled youth, the Government of Jharkhand is distributing 25,000 job offers on 12 January, 2018, the birth anniversary of Swami vivekananda celebrated as the National youth Day. JSDMS along with all other Departments of GoJ has conducted threemonth long Campus Placement Drives, Job fairs, Industry Connect Programmes and Employer’s Conclave to provide jobs to youth. These fairs and drives helped us to achieve our objective.
Expert Opinion
UNESCO Strategy for Technical and vocational Education and Training (TvET) 2016-21 aims to support the effort of member States to enhance relevance of their TvET system to equip all youth with the skills required for employment, decent work, entrepreneurship and lifelong learning and contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted in September 2015 in New york and SDG 4.4 calls for a sustainable increase in the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills. One major reason for youth unemployment is structural unemployment, which means the skill gap between workforce and industry requirements.
The eventual goal of any skill development programme is employment for youth. To demonstrate employability of the skilled youth, the Government of Jharkhand is distributing 25,000 job offers on 12 January, 2018, the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda celebrated as the National Youth Day.
JSDMS is making efforts to bridge the structural unemployment gap, with Industry Connect. The Government of Jharkhand as a prelude to Skill Summit 2018 has carried out Employers’ Conclave and Industry Specific Campus Placement Drives all over the State. Along with this, the society set up 14 Campus Placement Centres, organised Sector Skill Council Summits and conducted various other direct industry engagement programs, which has delivered positive results in terms of placement of youth.
The Jharkhand Government has drafted a skill policy to be launched during the Skill Summit 2018. The policy is supposed to attract investment in the skill sector as well as lay a roadmap for skill ecosystem in the State. The concept note has also been prepared for setting up Skill University in the state, which will usher in the path of horizontal and vertical career movement for skilled youth. JSDMS through hUNAR portal provides a convergence platform for all the State Government Departments to build a robust skill ecosystem.
Message
With the message of “Skilling youth, Enabling growth” the Government is geared up for an era of accelerated and sustainable economic growth of the State, skilling the local human resource, minimising distress migration and thereby achieving a win-win situation for the industry and the youth of Jharkhand.
The policy, processes, systems and skilling strategy in the State is aligned to meet the industry expectations, making the youth future Ready.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar will unveil the new engineering syllabus on January 24, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe announced.
“The current engineering syllabus has become very old. That’s why changes have been made in the syllabus. By next week, the new engineering syllabus will be announced and from the next academic year, all engineering colleges across the country will start implementing it,” said Dr Sahasrabudhe.
The step has been taken in line with the initiative of In revising the curriculum on regular basis to meet the needs of industry and other sectors.
The AICTE Chairman has made the announcement in Pune while inaugurating two new schemes by the council. He also revealed that 11 expert subject committees have been working on suggestions to overhaul the old syllabus.
He also said that the students taking admission in engineering courses would now required to undergo a mandatory three-week orientation programme.
“The students come from diverse backgrounds. Many of them come from rural areas and may not be well-versed in English, even though they are bright students. It is necessary to create a level playing field and that’s what these orientation workshops would do,” Sahasrabudhe added.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development has released the second installment of Rs four crore under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) for development of infrastructure in seven colleges of Chandigarh.
The Project Approval Board (PAB) of RUSA had sought approval for Rs 20 crore for building infrastructure but the MHRD has released on the basis of percentage utilization of earlier grant by the colleges in Chandigarh.
Additional State Project Director of RUSA, Chandigarh, Dalip Kumar said that each college eligible for grant allocation will be issued a priority list with deadline for projects proposed by them under RUSA. A meeting for the same would be called soon.
According to RUSA regulations, the infrastructure grants can be utilised by the colleges for new constructions like classrooms and laboratories for existing as well as for new programmes at undergraduate and post graduate levels. The funds can also be used for modernisation of sports facilities, and renovating academic, administrative block and toilets.
Upgradation of software learning resource and libraries, refurbishment of hostels, and furniture can also be procured using the grant under RUSA.
