Vocational Education- Is it only a number game?

Of late I have to grudgingly admire the serious efforts and interventions being made in China to streamline its vocational education system. Its effects are there for everyone to see. For the past few years, I have been living in Africa and have witnessed firsthand the very significant presence of young Chinese youth in verticals such as Railroad construction, Mining, Petroleum, Infrastructure and Financial Services. It is almost as if they have taken over the African economy and have left America and Europe far behind. Also equally impressive is the tremendous government support that Beijing provides to its nationals in clinching the deals. In this context, some statistics are worth mentioning. In the past 20 years, China has made very conscious and significant efforts to increase enrollment in tertiary education. In the 1990s China has less than one million youth in tertiary education and by 2011 the number has increased to 30 million! In contrast, the rate of change in the US has flattened. In this context, it is worth noting that in India the number of students enrolled in tertiary education is around 20 million...much less than in China. The quality of education offered in India in tertiary education is highly suspect as most colleges suffer from a lack of quality teachers, good libraries and any worthwhile research. In 2011 China produced more than 100,000 PhD scholars as compared to India which produced around 16,000 PhD scholars. However, the quality of research by these scholars in India is suspect. Anyway, I am digressing as the main focus of this article is on vocational education and not on higher education.

I firmly believe that a sound public-private partnership is the only lasting solution for attracting students to vocational education.  In India, it looks like the government is getting into the business of "driving" vocational education with the industry preferring to be a passive onlooker. Now we all know that if the government gets into " management" rather than policy making it makes a mess of everything. The Industry must have an active and wasted interest in vocational education to succeed. Also, the focus has to shift from "churning out numbers" to providing quality and state of art education. On this count again in India, we see a dismal picture. Most of the Industrial Technical institutes suffer from poor infrastructure, outdated labs and untrained teachers. This has resulted in a major shortfall of skilled workers. While China has 24% of highly skilled workforce  India has only 2% of skilled workforce. In my view, if nations have to increase their competitiveness then the only way is to ensure a fine balance between vocational education and tertiary education. Serious efforts need to be made to inject pride in a Plumber, Welder or Carpenter. A seamless transfer of credit from vocational to tertiary and vice versa needs to be facilitated. Vocational students must be given full opportunity to get practical training in the enterprise. And above all the government must redefine its role from an intruder in this space to a catalyst.