NITI Aayog suggests separate board, centralised admission test for ITIs

NEW DELHI: Describing Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) as the “backbone” of vocational training in India, union government policy think-tank NITI Aayog has recommended a separate central board for vocational education for better credibility and recognition of ITIs. Among other measures, it has also suggested centralised admission exams for over 15,000 ITIs and reframing courses on the basis of local demand assessment and employment potential.

In its study titled ‘Transforming Industrial Training Institutes’, NITI Aayog has presented a comprehensive set of recommendations to transform ITIs, through a seven-pronged approach including changes in administration, curriculum, reporting, monitoring, and resource mobilisation.

The report is based on interviews with over 40 principals, 100 instructors and over 1,000 trainees. The study found that the placement rate of ITIs stand at an appalling 0.09% even though the average cost estimation per student is Rs 1,32,000. Just 36% of the sanctioned instructor positions in ITIs are filled and only 15% of over 95,000 ITI instructors are trained under as per guidelines.

“ITIs require revamping and upgrading to be in line with the requirements of the changing world of work and re-look at courses and curriculum in terms of their relevance and quality. Quality driven, digitally enabled and technologically empowered ITIs will allow innovative practices for achieving quality in skill development,” said the report.

Over 75% ITIs are private

Started under a scheme launched in 1950, ITIs were intended to provide a skilled workforce to domestic industries. Today, they deliver one or two-year vocational training and skill courses.

According to the report, the role of training institutes is “very critical” to take advantage of the demographic dividend of the country with an average age of 28.7 years.

India now has 14,789 ITIs affiliated to the Directorate General of Training (DGT)- of which 78.40% are owned and operated by private entities; the rest are government institutions. Approximately 62% of all the seats are in private ITIs and 38% in government-run institutes. Around 66% of the 14,789 ITIs are situated in 5 states – Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

ITIs in India

“Most of the ITIs in India do not have a web portal. In general, government ITIs in India have huge land parcels with them but most of the infrastructure is found in dilapidated condition. Private ITIs, in general, have congested ergonomic space availability,” the report said.

ITI grading and expenditure

The DGT under the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) is the apex organisation for the development and coordination of vocational training activities in the country. The DGT grants accreditation once every five years. Its grades ITIs out of five points, based on their infrastructure, faculty and students count among other 27 parameters. Currently, the accreditation granted does not have an expiry date.

A total of 12,352 ITIs have been graded by DGT on a scale of one to five. Out of which 20.11% were government ITIs and the rest private. The average rating of Indian ITIs is 1.41. Private ITIs with a rating over 2.5 and government ones rated over 2 are eligible for financial support under Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) scheme.

According to NITI Aayog’s analysis, The government spends about Rs 10,000 crore on 3,500 government ITIs, apart from the Rs 2,200 crore STRIVE scheme which is World Bank-assisted.

As many as 464 private owned ITIs are rated above 2.5 and 526 public owned ITIs were rated above 2 which makes a total of 990 (8%) ITIs eligible for the STRIVE funding.

“Hence, the ITIs which are striving to improve their performance, generally do not have access to funds through this scheme. It is therefore recommended that a scheme can be devised for need based allocation of funds to low graded but promising ITIs with dearth of resources, tools, and equipment. A Centrally sponsored scheme with Centre and State partnership may be institutionalised for uplifting poor performing ITIs,” suggested the study.

The study also found that “seat utilisation” low; in the sample, the lowest was 30% and the highest, 80%. “This clearly depicts the underutilisation of resources. Hence, given if ITI performs at their full capacity the average cost per student will come down significantly,” said the report. At present, the per-student cost is Rs 1.32 lakh.

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ITI Admission

The ITIs have around 25 lakh seats and 12 lakh plus trainees of age 14 and above have been enrolled.

“Though most of the states have made the admission process online, the system lacks transparency and user-friendliness, especially in the case of admissions in private ITIs. At the time of admission in private ITI, students pay partial fees and secure admission. Thereafter private ITIs keep chasing trainees for payment of remaining fees. This adversely impacts the academic environment of the ITIs,” reports said.

NITI Aayog has suggested a national-level centralised portal, similar to the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JOSAA) used for engineering admissions. “Additionally, admission in ITIs should not be based only on 8th and 10th marks but also include a mechanism for checking aptitude and inclination of candidates for vocational skills,” says the report.

NITI Aayog has suggested that the current role of National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) should be extended as a National Board for Skill Development (NBSD) which can be a vocational education counterpart of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

“A dedicated board …can be empowered to conduct examinations and award degrees to ITI students which will be equivalent to academic degrees awarded by education boards such as CBSE,” Aayog said.

ITI Placements

After completion of course, some ITIs award State Council of Vocational Education (SCVT) certificates to trainees who clear a state level exam and some ITIs award National Council of Vocational Education (NCVT) certificates to those who clear national-level All India Trade Test (AITT). The industry values NCVT certificates more than SCVT certificates. These certificates are recognized qualifications for the purpose of recruitment to subordinate posts and services under the central and state governments.

Every ITI is supposed to have a placement cell to facilitate the placement of ITI graduates but many ITI principals stated the authors of the study that the “ITI placement cell consists of faculty members or instructors that do not have expertise about the tasks to be carried out by a placement cell, and there should be specialised training and separate remuneration for the placement cell’s work.”

The placement rates portray an even more “dismal picture” of the ITI ecosystem. According to NITI Aayog, “The overall placement scenario looks very bleak with only 405 candidates placed out of 4,14,247 candidates trained which is merely 0.09%.”

Tamil Nadu has the highest number of placements (3.2%) with 248 candidates placed out of 7,676 candidates trained. Gujarat is the second highest in placement with 0.25% of candidates placed with 92 out of 35,482 trainees. Rest of the States have a very poor placement record. For instance, out of 118,162 candidates that passed in the year 2020, only 11 were placed in Bihar and only 2 out of 28,423 trainees passed from the ITIs of Haryana.

“Despite this huge expenditure, the twin-deficit continues. Placement of ITI students remains low and industry keeps complaining of shortage of skilled technicians. The Indian ITI ecosystem is yet to reach German or other global benchmarks of Vocational Education Training (VET) quality,” report said.

To improve placements, NITI Aayog said, “ITIs should have clear forward linkages with the district employment exchange to enable placement and apprenticeship opportunities through employers registered with the exchange.”

NITI Aayog study suggested that a ‘Future of Skills’ vertical may be created under the DGT to assess future skill demands in order to have a perfect match between the demand and supply side of skilling at micro and macro level.

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Diversity

The number of active women ITIs operating in India forms 16.83% of the total ITIs in India. However, only 6.6% of female candidates took admission in ITIs in 2021 and only 15.83% of the total instructors were females.

“It is observed that female enrolments have been affected by many factors such as–non availability of hostels, poor road accessibility, no provision of transport from ITIs, and limited number of trades, usually in traditional, stereotypical female sectors such beauty and wellness, apparels, food processing, and so on,” said the report.

“These limitations should be addressed with special provisions for transport, hostel facilities for women ITIs and women attending coed ITIs. Non-traditional courses such as electrician, plumbing, fitter should be offered in women ITIs. The booming gig and platform economy has also opened new job prospects for women in non-traditional sectors and this opportunity must be leveraged,” suggested NITI Aayog.