Aiming to integrate skills in higher education, the Government has decided to set up on a pilot basis 200 community colleges within the existing colleges and polytechnics from the coming academic session.

These colleges will act as a potent tool for implementation of the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF) notified last year, HRD Minister M. M. Pallam Raju said.

“Community colleges would offer opportunities for lifelong learning and bridge courses for level certification as well as movement from one stream to another. Industry including business, service and agriculture allied sectors will be associated integrally at all levels of activities in these colleges,” he said at a conference on community colleges here.

Industry will also have representation on the board of studies and board of management of these colleges, thus going a long way in restoring industry confidence in the competence of prospective employees, he said.

Community colleges would offer credit-based modular courses to facilitate mobility of learners into the employment market, banking of credit and re-entry into colleges for skill upgradation.

The local community would be given preference in admission to these colleges, the Minister said, adding it would create a win-win situation for stakeholders, learners, industry and the community, besides the college.

The Minister said the challenge before industry today was the availability of skilled manpower.

According to Nasscom, each year over three million graduates and post-graduates are added to the Indian workforce. Of this, only 25 per cent of technical graduates and 10-15 per cent of other graduates are considered employable.

This demand-supply mismatch of skilled workforce is a big challenge, along with the lack of inclination among youth to join vocational courses.

Therefore, the integration of skills into higher education for making them relevant to learners is the key to addressing this mismatch and initiatives such as community colleges could help bridge the gap, he said.

He said with the notification of NVEQF, vocational courses have started in 40 secondary schools in Haryana on a pilot scale, while West Bengal, Karnataka and Assam are ready to launch their pilots soon.

Besides, eight other States have got their programmes approved for 2013-14. CBSE is also orienting private schools to accept the NVEQF to start vocational education programmes.

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