UGC Degree in Vocational Education, Coming Soon

The standing committee of UGC which met here two days ago has formally approved a proposal to introduce a bachelors degree in vocational education. This is to get a final nod from the commission. Once approved, a college student can pick up a bachelors degree in art, science ,commerce or vocational education.

“We propose to add vocational education as one of the specific degrees of UGC from 2012. The finer details are however being worked on,“ acting chairman of UGC Ved Prakash.

The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) had earlier written a letter to UGC requesting them to introduce vocational education at college level.

AICTE Chairman S S Mantha said that the curriculum of the new courses will be put on the website by March 10, 2012.

“This will boost employment for college graduates. The student will have to choose a sector and a specific specialization from each sector. Initially 10 sectors have been chosen including tourism, construction, printing, telecom, IT, mobile and communication,“ Mantha said.

To begin with, Mantha said, the proposal is to have five sectors in each college. Each sector can have a maximum of 100 students which means initially a college can have 500 students for vocational education.

Elaborating further, Mantha said that under entertainment sector a student can opt for specialization in theatre/stage craft or western classical dancing or even acting.

Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal had recently launched the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework for implementation in polytechnics, engineering colleges and other colleges in the university systems from 2012-13

Source: Hindustantimes