VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN INDIA

H.A.Keshava Murthy
Jt.Director of Training

Organization: Apex Hi-Tech Institute,DGE&T,Ministry of Labour,FTI Campus,Bangalore-560022 India.

E-mail Adress: keshav<apexhti@vsnl.com> and hakmurthy@hotmail.com

Tel.No. 91-80-3378335/3379178 91-80-3489266/3481060 (R) Fax: 91-80-3374248

VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN INDIA
DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING
Ministry of Labour, Government of India,NEW DELHI.

Strategies-Policies-Programmes

The DGE&T under the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, is the Apex organisation of the Employment Service and the Vocational Training Service in India.
The Govt. of India and DGET under Ministry of Labour have responded to the situation by laying special emphasis on the reformulation of the employment policy with short and long term perspectives.
DGET have established schemes and programmes to translate this policy into action.
Industrial Training Institutes and a number of other specialised institutions are operated both at the Centre and in the States/Union Territories to impart Vocational Training.
Development of Vocational Training Programmes at the national level rests with the Directorate General of Employment & Training. The responsibilities of the Directorate in this regard are as follows:

Evolving common policies
Laying down common standards and procedures
Training of personnel
Evaluation of the programmes

The day-to-day administration of the Industrial Training Institutes and of the Employment Exchanges, is the responsibility ofDirectorate of Employment & Training of the respective State Governments / Union Territories.

The Directorate General of Employment &Training [DGE&T] is an attached office of the Ministry of Labour, Government of India. It is headed by the Directorate-General of Employment and Training and ex-officio Joint Secretary of the Government of India, under the Secretary, Ministry of Labour. The DGE&T consists of the Directorate of Employment, Directorate of Training, and Secretariat Wing.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMME

A number of Training Schemes are being operated under the Directorate General of Employment and Training to ensure a regular supply of skilled man power at different levels.

These schemes are :

Craftsman Training Scheme
Apprenticeship Training Scheme
Craft Instructors Training Scheme
Training of Skilled Workers and Supervisors
Training of Women
Staff Training and Research
Development of Instructional Materials
Hi-Tech Training Scheme

The Craftsman Training Scheme is mainly implemented by the respective state government and UTs through a network of Industrial Training Institutes/Centres.

The Apprenticeship Training Scheme and the training of skilled workers under the Advanced Vocational Training Scheme are implemented jointly by Union Territories/State Governments and the Central Government.

For implementing the above mentioned programmes, the Central Government has set up specialised institutions which are directly under the control of DGE&T.

The Central Government is also responsible for laying down the policies, training standards, trade testing and certification. For this purpose, the Central Government is assisted by two Advisory bodies at the National level viz.,

The National Council for Vocational Training [NCVT]
The Central Apprenticeship Council [CAC]

The Central Apprenticeship Council is a statutory body set up under the Apprenticeship Act, 1961, and deals with the implementation of the Apprenticeship Training Programme. The Union Minister for Labour is the Chairman of both these Councils.

Craftsman Training Scheme

A network of 4100 Industrial Training Institutes/Centres spread all over the country with a total seating capacity of about 0.6.million craftsmen [as on 31.07.98] have been trained in the various Engineering and Non-Engineering trades. This activity is continuing.

The four Model Industrial Training Institutes [MITIs] at Haldwani [U.P.], Calicut [Kerala], Jodhpur [Rajasthan] and Choudwar [Orissa] set up by the Government of India to organise Craftsmen Training Programme on modular basis are continuing the activities of imparting training.

Apprenticeship Training Programme

The implementation of the Apprenticeship Training Scheme under the Apprentices Act, 1961 as amended from time to time. Against 224626 seats located for trade apprentices under the Act, 16159 apprentices have undergone training by the end of September, 1998. Against 48603 seats located for Graduate and Technician Apprentices, 357105 have undergone training by the end of September 1998 in 6151 establishments. This includes apprentices belonging to SC,ST, Minority Communities, Physically Handicapped and Women.

The State Apprenticeship Advisors under the State Governments/Union Territories and the six Regional Directorate of Apprenticeship training at Mumbai, Calcutta, Kanpur, Madras, Hyderabad and Faridabad are implementing the provisions of the Apprentices Act relating to the training of trade apprentices in the State /Central Sector.

The four Boards of Apprenticeship Training under the Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development implement the provision of the above Act relating to training of graduate, technician and technician [vocational] apprentices concerning both Central/State Sectors.

Craft Instructor Training
The Advanced Training Institutes [ATIs] at Calcutta, Bombay, Ludhiana, Hyderabad and Kanpur and the Central Training Institute for Instructors, Madras continue to conduct regular instructor training courses. The modular training courses are also being conducted at ATI, Hyderabad and CTI, Madras. Advanced Vocational Training Scheme(AVTS)
(Training of highly skilled craftsmen)
The Advanced Training Institute [ATI] at Madras which functions as the lead Institute under the Advanced Vocational Training Scheme [AVTS] and other five ATIs at Calcutta, Ludhiana, Hyderabad, Bombay and Kanpur are conducting advanced courses for technicians/workers from industry to meet the specific training requirements of establishments both in public and private sectors.

The two Advanced Training Institutes for Electronics and Process Instrumentation [ATI-EPIs] set up at Hyderabad and Dehrhadun offer long and short term courses in the fields of Electronics and Process Instrumentation.

Foremen Training Programme
The Foremen Training Institutes at Bangalore and Jamshedpur continue to meet the training requirements of industry at lower and middle level management through their specially designed courses for supervisors/foremen in various technical and managerial areas.

Foremen Training Institute Bangalore is conducting many tailor-made courses in the areas of Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Supervisory Development as per the needs of Public sector/Private sector industries and other government organisations.

Training Programme for Women
Under this programme,

National Vocational Training Institute for Women at Noida [U.P.]
Regional Vocational Training Institutes [RVTIs] for Women at
Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta, Trivandrum, Hissar, Tura, Indore Allahabad , Vadodara and Jaipurare imparting training at basic and advanced levels. There is a steady growing demand for the training programmes being conducted at RVTI Bombay and Bangalore.Under a Centrally Sponsored scheme, State Governments are being assisted to set up ITIs exclusively for Women/Women's Wings in general Industrial Training Institutes and also strengthening the existing ITIs by introducing new trades.

Staff Training/Research, Development of Teaching Materials The Central Staff Training and Research Institute[CSTARI] at Calcutta is engaged in research, development and staff training.

The Central Instructional Media Institute [CIMI] has been established in 1986 at Madras in collaboration with the German Government for development of instructional media packages and question banks for different trades.

WORLD BANK ASSISTED VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROJECT [VTP]

The main objective of this project is to modernise and update the National Vocational Training System in the country for ensuring a steady flow of adequately trained manpower for the changing and emerging skill needs of the industry. This will be achieved by bringing about all round qualitative and quantitative improvements in various national training system to cope with highly advanced technologies [e.g., electronics, computers, communications, NC/CNC Machine tools, Robotics, Computer Integrated Manufacture, FMS, Advanced welding technology, etc. ] being introduced in India at an accelerating pace. This would expand and diversify programmes in the advanced skill and Hi-Tech areas and increase the area of training in non-traditional sectors for the development of skills of men and women

DGE&T have taken up a comprehensive programme for improving the quality of training in the ITIs and expanding the training for women candidates and industrial workers with financial assistance from the World Bank for a Vocational Training Project. There are also schemes to increase the number of women ITIs and to start non-traditional trades which are more relevant for their employment potential in existing and new ITIs. Considerable progress has been made in the implementation of the above schemes.

Apart from implementing the schemes successfully in several states and in its own DGET Institutions, Govt. of India under DGE&T is also establishing a new Apex Hi-Tech Institute at Bangalore for imparting Training under Hitech areas with the assistance of Germany. The full complement of the Institute with infrastructure facilities is expected to be ready in another 2 years duration.

Teacher Training

The teacher training programmes in CTIs and CSTARI are being evaluated periodically to evolve a more comprehensive and integrated programme catering to the demands on quality and quantity of technical and vocational teachers needed in the economic liberalisation scenario.

Switching over to competency-based vocational training requires a tremendous effort in training a large number of instructors in competency-based vocational training. The teacher training programme should be competency-based and should take the cognisance of the modern educational communication and use it for introducing open and distance learning. This is necessary if we have to provide vocational training opportunities to the large number of students coming out of secondary and higher secondary education throughout the country. DGE&T is making efforts in this direction to reach the target groups through distance learning by the facilities already available in the country for such open and distance learning.