The Planning Commission is going to combine the two vocational education schemes – the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF) developed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF), led by the Ministry of Labour and Employment – into a composite scheme in a bid to fast-track the government’s efforts to sharp focus and upscale the vocational education system in the country.
Speaking at the 4th Global Skills Summit, Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission said, “The Planning Commission will constitute a sub-committee to combine NVEQF and NVQF and its report will be vetted by the Steering Committee on Education and Skill development for incorporating its recommendation in the full 12th Plan document, which is expected to be ready before March 31, 2012.”
The accent on education and skill development in the 12th Plan, with special focus on vocational education comes in the wake of the imperative of creating 500 million skilled workers in the country by 2022.
Dr. Jadhav also dispelled industry’s perception that the 12th Plan Approach Paper did not give priority to skill development.
He said, “The 12th Plan would focus on three sectors – education and skill development, health and infrastructure. The first three years of the Plan (2012-15) would be a period of fiscal restraint and consolidation. Therefore, the gross budgetary support from the government for plan schemes was unlikely to be very much higher than in the previous plan period.”
He advised FICCI and Ernst & Young to submit the proposed White Paper on Skill development imperatives for the 12th Plan to the Planning Commission without delay as there was still time for the Commission to circulate the recommendation to the Steering Committee which is to meet for the third and final time before October 31, 2011.
