Dr. Parshotam S. Manhas
National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) is a quality assurance framework that intends to bridge the existential demand-supply gap for skilled workforce in different sectors across India. It strives to ensure quality standards for progression and upward mobility through formal and informal education and training by mapping different levels of knowledge, skills and aptitude. Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country. When implemented in letter and spirit, NSQF may go a long way to promote a culture of credit transfers and other accomplishments in vocational education and training.
NSQF organizes qualifications according to levels of knowledge, data, skills and aptitude in order to facilitate interaction between general education, vocational education and training that have been operating as separate and independent verticals so far. These levels, graded from one to ten, are defined in terms of learning outcomes which the learner must possess regardless of whether they were acquired through formal or informal learning. It is, therefore, a nationally integrated education and competency-based skill that will provide for multiple pathways, horizontal as well as vertical, including vocational education, vocational training, general education and technical education, thereby linking one level of learning to another higher level. This will enable a learner to acquire desired levels of competency, transit to the job market and at an opportune time, return to equip with additional skills to enhance the proficiencies.
Role of higher education
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 stipulates that a National Higher Education Qualification Framework (NHEQF) will be formulated in sync with NSQF so as to ease the integration of vocational education into higher education, prescribe the facilitative norms for issues such as credit transfer, equivalence, etc. Higher education qualifications leading to a degree/ diploma/ certificate shall also be described by the NHEQF in terms of the learning outcomes.
The purpose is to elevate all HEIs to a common level of benchmarking to ensure that all institutions are providing quality education. The framework is intended to allow for flexibility and innovation in i) curriculum design and development, ii) teaching-learning process, iii) assessment of students’ learning levels, and iv) periodic programme review within a broad framework of agreed expected programme/course learning outcomes and academic standards.
The NHEQF is an outcome-based framework for different types of qualifications – Undergraduate Certificate / Diploma, Bachelor’s degree, Bachelor’s degree (Honours /Research), Post-Graduate Diploma, Master’s degree, Doctoral degree. The NHEQF levels represent a series of sequential stages expressed in terms of a range of learning outcomes against which typical qualifications are indicated. NHEQF level 5 represents learning outcomes appropriate to the first year (first two semesters) of the undergraduate programme of study, while Level 10 represents learning outcomes appropriate to the doctoral-level programme of study. At every level, the students will be assessed based on parameters including knowledge and understanding of theory; cognitive and technical skills; application of knowledge and skills; decision-making abilities; constitutional, humanistic, ethical and moral values; employment-ready skills and the entrepreneurship mindset. NHEQF Draft also fixes the number of credits required to clear the different levels of the four-year undergraduate programme, master’s degrees and doctoral degrees.
It is a well known fact that degrees in professional courses like engineering and management are not able to meet the talent requirements in the corporate sector in India. It is also understandable that ITI and polytechnic courses are least aspirational even though they have an inherent potential to enable sustainable livelihoods, salaried jobs and self-employment. While most students are conditioned to one-track thinking they need to be aware of how their formal education connects with the workplace skills and the knowledge and abilities acquired through formal education.
We must create awareness among students and parents that engineering is not the only aspirational degree to fulfill career ambitions and accept alternatives such as vocational streams of education and training. We should connect education with employability and show various paths to upward mobility through recognition of prior learning (RPL) and formal certification.
Students need to know that formal degree curricula are mostly equipped with knowledge and they have to explore different ways of practicing and applying the knowledge. They need to appreciate the vocational aspects of learning alongside college programs through real-work exposure, working with tools, machines and gadgets. Only then their higher education gets aligned with skills required at the basic levels and they are well prepared to understand the discipline and connect it with the industry in a holistic manner.
The journey from education to employment is marked with the graduates or job aspirants on one hand and the industry / the corporate sector on the other hand. The process should enable meeting the market demands for skilled workforce through industry approved training curriculum and placement options. It also needs to facilitate the training of trainers in collaboration with NSDC.
One of the main objectives of NSQF is to facilitate easy entry into job market with desired skills and knowledge and enhances international mobility of workforce through compliance with global standards. It primarily aims at establishing interoperability through a national level quality assurance framework that is on par with international standards. It aims at providing flexibility with multiple entry and exit levels.
The specific outcomes expected from implementation of NSQF are:
i. Mobility between vocational and general education by alignment of degrees with NSQF.
ii. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), allowing transition from non-formal to organized job market.
iii. Standardized, consistent, nationally acceptable outcomes of training through a national quality assurance framework.
iv. Global mobility of skilled workforce from India through international equivalence of NSQF.
v. Mapping of progression pathways within sectors and cross-sectors.
vi. Approval of National Occupational Standards (NOS) /Qualification Packs (QPs) as national standards for skill training.
NSQF is certainly a great step toward skill development. It motivates institutions to focus on other non-academic and professional skills that are otherwise ignored. It is operationalized by National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) to ensure the quality and standards in meeting the burgeoning demand of industry and corporate sectors.
(The author is Associate Professor at GDC Samba)
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