Certification of skills and Recognition of Qualification

1
Certification of skills and Recognition of
Qualification Benchmark Standards, skills
upgrading and labor market oriented vocational
trainingConceptual Issues

• Pawan Agarwal
• Fulbright New Century Scholar
• on Higher Education from India (2005/06)

2
Framework of presentation

• What makes certification and recognition
  important?
• Look at the Future
• How this can be delivered?
• Lessons for India
• Possible actions under Indo-EU partnership

3
The Barefoot College (Tilonia)

• Trains the very poor rural youth in basic and
  practical skills related to preventive health,
  running schools, installing hand pumps,
  constructing rainwater harvesting tanks, laying
  piped water schemes, installing solar water
  systems, and fabricating solar lanterns,
  conducing pathology tests and delivering babies.
  No degree, diploma, certificate is awarded so
  that they do not migrate to the city (Indian
  Express - Nov 20, 2006).
• Mobility holds the key to certification
  recognition of qualifications

4
Mobility Win-Win-Win(?)

• Allows better division of labor efficient
  outcome, improved efficiency and increased
  productivity - promotes most optimum division of
  labor Economy benefits
• Reduce search cost and enables to get the best
  skilled person at the least cost Employer
  benefits
• Better returns for skills in the form of higher
  wages Individual benefits
• Greater competition resulting in lower wages
  Individual may lose may hurt social cohesion

5
Growing integration of labour markets

• Level of integration Type of skill and type of
  organization
• Nationally integrated labor markets for most
  skills
• Labor markets are increasingly integrated at the
  global level for many skills, both people and
  work move across national border
• Regional labour market integration efforts in the
  EU region
• Formal sector employment greater integration?

6
Is only formal sector labour market getting
integrated?

• Huge differences between India and Europe 7
  percent in India compared to 70 percent in
  Portugal may be more in others, but
  similarities on
• Change in the form of organization smaller
  organizational units
• Are not necessarily less efficient
• Do not always employ local staff
• May cater to global markets
• Change in employer-employee relationship -
  greater casualization of work not necessarily
  bad?

7
Government versus private initiatives

• Government efforts
• Competency-based skill standards 47 skills
• Framework for skill development for the informal
  sector
• Private initiatives
• NASSCOM Assessment of Competence for BPO Sector
  (Pilot Project) www.nasscom.org
• National Skills Registry of NASSCOM
• MeritTrac Skills Assessment Company
• Private accreditation of maritime manpower

8
Lessons for India

• Certification and recognition issues important
  where mobility is high
• Need to look at spectrum of skills high end to
  low end (Degrees from higher / technical
  education, diplomas from polytechnics and
  certificates from ITIs) pathways for horizontal
  and vertical mobility
• Take into account private initiatives while
  developing country strategy
• Use of common language difficult
• Next best thing - creating an understanding and
  drawing parallels
• Heterogeneity of standards may make the entire
  effort meaningless

9
Indo-EU Partnership

• Learning from experience
• Opportunity to address skill shortages
• Identify areas engage with India for developing
  people with those skills benchmarked to EU
  standards
• Facilitate temporary movement immigration
  policies
• India and Indians will get opportunity for high
  wage employment, increased remittances
• (Inevitability of skill shortages due to aging
  population despite unemployment people not
  willing to take up certain kind of work - high
  wage rates)