Abstract
Developing skills and competencies among the youth population is posing a serious concern for educators and curriculum developers in India. Ironically, the country which has an advantage of being a young nation, has a vast majority of students drop out at various stages of school education and at the same time are usually bereft of employable skills and competencies. The Indian experience of vocationalisation of education, which has a history of four decades, lacks success in its growth and effective implementation. The recent initiatives of Government of India prioritise on skill development programmes with employment potential and direct utility in life. The prominent among them are setting up National Skill Development Council and National Vocational Educational Qualifications Framework to meet the future professional needs of the society. Against this background, the chapter consolidates policies, programmes, and reports on work education and advancing entrepreneurship in Indian and international context.
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Notes
- 1.
Professor Raymond B. Catell (1950) propounded the theory of personality. According to him, the basic structural element is the trait. He defined that a trait is a structure of the personality inferred from behaviour in different situations. He classified traits into four categories.
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Common Traits: Certain traits which are widely distributed among all groups are common traits such as honesty, aggression and cooperation.
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Unique Traits: These traits are possessed by particular people, e.g. temperamental traits, emotional reactions, energy, etc.
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Surface Traits: Traits which can be easily recognised by appearance of behaviour are called surface traits. These are curiosity, integrity, honesty, tactfulness and dependability.
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Source Traits: Traits which control the behaviour of the individual such as dominance and emotionality.
Cattel’s work is a renowned example of the trait approach. Trait theories assume that personality can be characterised by knowing a person’s traits. The ‘trait profile’ indicates an individual’s standing on each of the primary traits, which emerges from his score. This provides the description and measurement of personality. The 16-personality factor questionnaire is a well-known test designed by Professor Catell. For high school students, Professor Cattell developed the ‘High School Personality Questionnaire’, popularly known as HSPQ, in 1984. HSPQ is a personality questionnaire that evaluates 14 personality characteristics, namely, warmth, intelligence, emotional stability, excitability, dominance, cheerfulness, conformity, boldness, sensitivity, withdrawal, apprehension, self-sufficiency, self-discipline and tension. It is an effective tool assessing the behaviour pattern of adolescents.
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- 2.
The National Knowledge Commission (http://www.knowledgecommission.gov.in) was set up in June 2005 as a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India with the objective to sharpen India's comparative advantage in the knowledge-intensive service sectors. The National Knowledge Commission has submitted around 300 recommendations on 27 focus areas during its three-and-a-half year term. While the term of the NKC has come to an end, the implementation of NKC’s recommendations is under way at the Central and state levels.
- 3.
The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is a not-for-profit organisation in public–private partnership (PPP) mode set up by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, in 2009 to help the up-gradation of skills among the Indian workforce, especially in the unorganised sector. The key role of the NSDC relates to funding, incentivizing and enabling support services through trainings and in-depth research studies to fill the gap between growing demand and scarce supply of skilled workforce across the sectors. Twenty-one sectors have been identified, which include automobiles and auto components, electronic hardware, textiles and garments, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, construction, handlooms and handicrafts, information technology and software, tourism, banking and insurance, health care, education and skill development, media, etc.
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Appendices
Appendix A: Entrepreneurship Self-Assessment Scale
S. no. | Identified dimensions of entrepreneurship | Test items | Item nos. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Risk taking | I would like to take risk in business if the chances of success lie between 30 % and 40 % | 31 | 23 | – | – |
The business I am thinking of is not really unusual | ||||||
2 | Persistence and hard work | I do not give up even in the face of difficulty | 4 | 17 | 40 | – |
I do not allow failures to discourage me | ||||||
I am not willing to work for more than eight hours a day | ||||||
3 | Use of feedback | I do not get upset when I receive negative feedback for my performances | 6 | 11 | 36 | – |
Mistakes and failures make me so depressed that I cannot learn from them | ||||||
I enjoy those activities where I get information on how good or how bad I am doing | ||||||
4 | Personal responsibility | I do not get excited with the favourable results if these are not due to my own efforts | 13 | 20 | 25 | – |
I do not enjoy working in a team as a leader; rather I like to be the member of the team | ||||||
5 | Knowledge ability | I do not see the importance of reading newspaper every day | 5 | 32 | 38 | – |
I need not waste time and money on market research, if the product sells, I will go on producing | ||||||
I shall attempt to become an expert in the product I am selling | ||||||
6 | Persuasive ability | I do not find difficulty in convincing people around me to trust my capability to succeed | 16 | 27 | – | – |
My parents/friends/people around me doubt my capability to start and successfully handle the business | ||||||
7 | Managerial ability | It is not necessary to be scientific and rational about management techniques as long as one has a will to do it | 24 | 30 | 37 | – |
I am able to lead a group only when people are willing to follow me | ||||||
I do not find anything wrong in seeking expert advice on how I should manage my business | ||||||
8 | Innovativeness | I find it difficult to come up with new ideas | 9 | 12 | 33 | 39 |
I am comfortable in tackling difficulties through my ingenuity and problem solving abilities | ||||||
I find it difficult to perceive a need (foresee a problem) unless someone points it out | ||||||
9 | Integrity and communication | I contribute in building up the image of my area/whole organisation | 3 | 14 | 15 | 29 |
During my free time (leisure period), I like discussing rumours among my friends | ||||||
I try to maintain open communication channels with everyone | ||||||
Setting a personal example of integrity and conscientiousness is not needed | ||||||
10 | Emotional stability | I believe that I can learn from errors and that it should be reflected in my behaviour | 1 | 8 | 28 | – |
I like to take challenges in assignments and ensure their successful completion | ||||||
I think new ideas lead to disagreement, discussions and frictions | ||||||
11 | Motivation | I am action oriented and always meet the expected results of my work | 10 | 22 | 34 | – |
I have a lot of initiative and i am always ready for collaborations | ||||||
I do not believe in conveying appreciations and compliments | ||||||
12 | Decision making | I keep an eye on the implementation of plans and remove the blockages | 2 | 18 | 21 | 26 |
When faced with a sudden change in plan of action, I am able to think of alternatives and decide on a new situation | ||||||
I generally ‘shoot down’ the ideas of others | ||||||
I emphasise regular evaluation, measurement and review of performance | ||||||
13 | Divergent thinking | When I am dealing with a problem, I tend to be stuck easily | 7 | 19 | 39 | – |
When faced with a sudden change in plan of action, I am able to think of alternatives and decide on a new situation | ||||||
I do not find anything wrong in seeking expert advice on how I should manage my business | ||||||
Appendix B: Problem Solving Adequacy Scale
S. no. | Test items | |
|---|---|---|
1. | I like to define a problem in one than one ways | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
2. | I like the company of creative people | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
3. | I prefer to solve the problem by adopting playful activities | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
4. | I encourage the original ideas of people around me | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
5. | I like to discuss the alternate solutions to a critical problem | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
6. | In a given situation, I prefer to first visualise and then communicate whatever my view point | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
7. | I believe that new ideas should be experimented irrespective of the results they yield | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
8. | I generally apply alternate ways of doing things | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
9. | While reading, something new, I am more likely to remember the main ideas | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
10. | To solve a particular problem various alternatives are preferable | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
11. | When faced by a difficult situation, I persist and set the problems aside temporarily without giving up | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
12. | I employ innovative ideas in solving problems | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
13. | While making plans for the future actions, I prefer to use paper–pencil | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
14. | I consider it a challenge to find a solution in different areas, whether they are major or minor | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not Sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
15. | Being restricted to one or few ideas does not satisfy me | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree | ||
16. | I consider problems as opportunities | Strongly agree |
Agree | ||
Not sure | ||
Disagree | ||
Strongly disagree |
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Vaidya, S. (2014). Entrepreneurship and Skill Development. In: Developing Entrepreneurial Life Skills. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1789-3_2
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