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India Needs Urgent Vocational Education Reforms for Skilled Workforce Development

Opinion

Business Honor India Urges Vocational Reforms

Business Honor
22 August, 2025

India must reform its vocational education system to enhance workforce skills, employability, and future growth.

India's present education system, loaded with academics and memorization, is not suited to equip the workforce of the future to take on the world of work. With a turbulence-plagued external sector and need for consumption-driven growth, the government urgently needs to place high on its agenda reforms that not only rebalance GST to increase consumption but also overhaul the vocational education and training (VET) system.

In spite of having more than 14,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and 25 lakh sanctioned seats, India's VET system is characterized by poor enrollment rates with only 48% of the seats being occupied. Only 4% of India's workforce is trained formally, and even those who get trained have poor employment rates. Contrary to this, nations such as Germany, Singapore, and Canada have 80-90% employment rates among their VET graduates.

The origin of this issue is India's late entry into VET, generally after high school, which compresses the training into a shorter time and discourages many students. In addition, the lack of strong transition channels between vocational education and tertiary education renders it unappealing to those who want to keep academic alternatives open. The other important issue is the obsolete curriculum and minimum industry participation in India's VET. Singapore, a successful model of VET, has industry input incorporated in curricula design, periodic audits, and continuous upskilling opportunities. In India, most ITI teachers are inadequately trained, and private sector involvement is very limited. Manufacturing and engineering sectors like Siemens and GE could contribute by offering hands-on experience and co-designing programs with educational institutions.

In order to transform India's VET system, immediate action needs to be taken: early incorporation into school curricula, establishing well-defined lines to higher education, and investment in public-private partnerships. More public expenditure and funding based on performance for ITIs can also enhance training outcomes. Only through complete reform can India realize its human capital and develop a more skilled, employable workforce for the future. Public-private partnerships, such as those between NSDC and leading corporate partners, should be central to the modernization effort.