Restructuring India’s learning system: Lessons from Canada
The Canadian system offers high-quality education across the country
India is at a very interesting stage of its demographic dividend -- more than 60% of its population is in the working agegroup which is expected to cross 65% by 2036. To meet the constantly changing employment scenarios and to keep the youth updated, skilling has become a must for an emerging economy. India has set an ambitious goal to skill and reskill about 400 million Indians by 2022.
By 2025 it is projected that India will be home to the world’s largest working-age population. However, the Indian education system has both quality and capacity challenges. There is an urgent need to make Indian workforce globally employable.
According to NASSCOM, only 7% of Indian engineering graduates have employable skills and there are over 35% teaching positions vacant in institutions like IITs. To meet the growing demand, India would require adding over a thousand universities and 45,000 colleges in the next ten years.
To meet both quality and capacity challenges of the Indian Education System, Indo-Canadian collaboration can play a significant role. For the last several years, Canadian educational institutions including institutions have been associated with several Indian educational institutions in capacity building. Now, it is time to expand and strengthen Indo-Canadian tieups for the structuring of the Indian education system.
Seneca College, for instance, offers applied degrees, diploma, advanced diploma, and postgraduate certificate programs. These are not standalone courses but designed with relevant inputs from industry stakeholders. The program advisory board consists of representatives from the industry. The advantage of skill-based education is that it keeps students updated in their respective area of knowledge or skills.
The Canadian system offers consistent high-quality education across the country. The Provincial government maintains quality assurance and has a rigorous approval process.
Canadian colleges offer PostGraduate Programs (also known as Post- Diploma Programs) for students who have already completed a University or College degree or diploma. The Programs are of shorter duration, usually 1-2 years for full-time study, and offer intensive training with practical experience in specific career areas. For those who want to continue their fulltime job, certificate programs are also furthering their education in the evening or on weekends.
Specialized graduate certificate programs are the ideal choice for post-secondary graduates who want more career-focused education and industry experience. Certificate programmes essentially work as an efficient tool for career advancement and provide a pathway to a new career in just one year. This certificate is very helpful for professionals.
The Canadian system focuses on five Key Performance Indicators to collect and report performance data in five areas which include graduate satisfaction, student satisfaction, employer satisfaction, employment rate and graduation rate. Three of these indicators- graduate employment, graduate satisfaction, and employer satisfactionare used to distribute performance funding to the colleges.
India needs to adopt a practical, skilled-based education system and embed experiential learning programs into the curriculum which will enable students to work and get professional experience while studying and be job-ready upon completion of studies.
Benefits of skill-based education system:
• Ensures that students will maintain a license or professional certification
• Awareness about new compliance regulations or changes to existing ones
• Supports stay current on industry standards and best practices
• Provides knowledge that can help them to improve in their current jobs
• Increases salary potential Outcome-based education and Project-based learning are two models, which can be implemented to deliver skill-based education. The outcome-based education has three pillars which include Program Educational Objectives, Program Outcomes and Course outcome. Likewise, project-based learning includes an emphasis on critical thinking, creativity and communication skills. The quality of education delivered should be uniform in all institutes of higher education.
With huge potential, India urgently needs to restructure its education system with a focus on skilling and creativity. Emergence as the Human Resource Capital of the world would surely require high-quality skilling of youth. Skill development initiatives will significantly help actualize the inert potential of the country.