Vocational Training

In Tamil Nadu, shrinking of acreage under agriculture in small farms due to increasing population, urbanization, industrialization and also increased use of machines for agriculture have led to reduced number of people engaged in this field.

SarvaSikshaAbhiyan (Total Literacy Campaign) was launched in 2001 to ensure that all children in the 6 to 14 year age group attend schools. According to SSA, in Tamil Nadu 19.3% of students drop out of school every year. In terms of numbers that works out to 32,500 per year. The number of dropout children from 6 to 10th standard is 1,279.in Tiruvarur Dt. The majority of students dropout after the 10 th standard.

Those children who dropout are, naturally unable to get employment based on educational qualifiications. They need to have an alternative avenue to get into regular employment. Vocational training is one such option.

“Today we have an anomalous situation of industries not finding persons of adequate skill leading to low productivity and avoidable wastage on the one hand and resorting to capital intensive processes on the other. On the other hand there is a large young population that is unemployed or under employed. This situation can be rectified by equipping the youth with appropriate skills.” This is the inescapable conclusion of a study done by the M.S.Swaminathan Research Centre, Chennai.

With appropriate skill sets, some of these youth will have the opportunity to find gainful occupation . This has multiple benefits. Since they tend to work in places close to home, they are able to locally provide services which are hitherto sourced from nearby towns. A good example, is repairing domestic durables like Grinders or Mobile Phones.

According to the report, the speed of the nation’s development is directly related to the quality and quantity of vocational skills possessed by its work force. The wider the range and higher the quality of vocational skills, the faster the growth and more prosperous the society.

There is a gap in occupation skills. It is increasingly difficult to obtain workers with basic skills in carpentry, masonry, electrical, mechanics and many other trades. Through the vocational training system, less than two million persons are trained annually.However,there is a need for seven million job entrants. The report concludes that rural India has the opportunity to move from agriculture into service.

From 10 th standard onward,the education becomes a bit challenging. Some of them fail in the examination and are unwilling to continue. So about 15% of children who fail in 10 th standard and are unable to cope, have noalternative and arecompelled to go and work in the fields. Some of the students cannot afford admission to colleges. At the age of 15, children who have dreams of a good future resent this and such dropouts may turn out to be a social problem.

Nearly 9 out of 10 such children display aptitude and skill for industrial training and do well. Such children can realize their dreams by moving into industries or become self-employed professionals and live with dignity and self-esteem.

With this alternative of vocational training, we channelize the energies of young persons into productive, gainful activities. In the absence of such an alternative, they may turntowards socially counterproductive activities. In the long run, this is an activity that is clearly making an extraordinary contribution to the welfare of the entire community around.