Quality trainers must rise to the ‘vocation’

While training in vocational centres could fetch gainful employment to students, many such institutes lack talented instructors to train them. At the state department of employment and training, of the 2,395 posts for trainers, 1,109 are lying vacant.

The department is, however, managing by engaging with 750 temporary trainers. Although service-oriented streams such as healthcare, hospitality, tourism and banking are in demand, vocational institutes catering to these sectors face a shortage of quality trainers. “Lack of quality trainers is a concern. Even though the current shortage is about 10 % after counting the temporary staff, we need to look into the quality,” said Halappa Shetty, deputy director (training) of the department.

According to HA Keshava Murthy, executive director of Karnataka Vocational Training and Skill Development Corporation, by 2020, the Centre aims is to have 500 million skilled workers in the country. “The issue is qualitative instructors to train candidates. The figure that is being envisaged is almost an impossible task,” he said adding that in the country there was a shortage of about 40% professional trainers.

There are 167,000 seats for candidates in training institutes including ITIs, grant-in-aid ITIs and privately-run ITCs. “We’ve noticed that many of the ITIs that request for affiliation do not have adequate staff,” he said.

Hari Menon, consulting adviser of IndiaSkills which provides soft skills training and employs 40 trainers across the state, said: “The need for vocational education training is felt most in the semi-urban and smaller towns and cities, but qualified and experienced personnel capable of delivering training are mostly concentrated in Tier I cities. This is most evident in retail and banking sectors wherein good professionals are difficult to locate as many banks and retail outlets are operating from metro cities.”

The problem is locating field experienced trainers with requisite teaching skills to impart training to learners, he said.

“Potential trainers for such sectors have sound technical knowledge but lack training skills, which include understanding of pedagogy, session plans, classroom management and assessments. This trainers’ deficit is one of the major reasons for the sector’s lacklustre performance,” said Menon. He added that in such a situation, the alternative was to ask them to relocate to smaller towns - an option more likely to be rejected on account of lifestyle and pay-scale in metros.