New Delhi : The government may soon rate Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the country on the basis of their voluntary self-assessment validated by a third party, a move that is expected to substantially enhance the quality of skills training imparted in these institutions.
Officials said the star ratings will be used to determine government funding to the ITIs and select the top performing ones.
India has more than 13,000 ITIs, of which 85% are run by the private sector and 15% are government-funded. All ITIs put together have 25 lakh seats per annum, just a fourth of the requirement of training one crore youth a year.
“While the capacity of ITIs is very low compared to the demand, the quality of training imparted is pretty low, as a result of which even the employability is extremely poor,” skills development secretary KP Krishnan said.
He told that the first round of self-assessment by one-third ITIs which have volunteered will be over by July 31. “Once this is validated they will be graded and these grades will reflect in their certificates, thus making it easier for the employer,” he said. “Going forward these ratings will also determine government funding as well as infrastructure creation in these it is.”
Krishnan said the current voluntary self-assessment could eventually become mandatory. Citing a 2012 KPMG study on skills gap assessment across 24 sectors, Krishnan said workers in these sectors constitute nearly 99% of the country’s total organised workforce and it is estimated that from 2013-22 there will be an incremental demand of 10 crore skilled workers. “Hence, the task before the skills development ministry is to skill at least one crore people every year,” he said.
“In the short term we need to clearly focus on increasing scale of skilling and convergence across ministries while in the long term we need to put in place the vocational education training system,” Krishnan said.
The skills development ministry is planning a comprehensive National Vocational Education and Training System in the country, on the lines of programmes in European countries, to facilitate job readiness and entrepreneurship among youth following the recommendations of the Sharda Prasad Committee.
The committee has proposed that the government create a sound National Vocational Education and Training System which provides every child an option to go for vocational education and training as he or she is permitted to go to humanities, science, commerce, technical education or medical education, after 10 years of schooling.
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