Vocational Courses in India

Vocational Courses in India covers vocational courses at the secondary (Classes 9 and 10), and higher secondary (10+2), first-degree level, job-oriented and application-oriented first degree programmes, and polytechnic education.

Secondary Level Vocational Courses in India: At the 10+2 level, students can opt for vocational subjects from an approved list. The Apprentice Act, 1961 was amended in 1986 to bring within its purview the training of successful candidates of the 10+2 vocational stream as “Technician (Vocational) Apprentices”. This has been discussed in subsequent section.

UGC Level Vocational Courses: In the academic year 1994-95, the University Grants Commission introduced the scheme for vocationalisation (UGC-VC) at the first degree level. The objective was to prepare university graduates for employment, particularly self-employment and entrepreneurship. A total of 35 subjects are offered in four disciplines (Science, Engineering and Technology, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Commerce). A student could select one vocational subject with two to three non-vocational subjects according to the university regulations.

Job-Oriented and Application-Oriented Programmes Vocational Courses in India: Though conventionally these two programmes do not fall in the vocational category, for all practical purposes, they are vocational in nature. As the graduates with liberal arts and science degrees did not find it easy to secure jobs, the new self-financing colleges which sprung up mostly in the South during the nineties, found it more attractive to start, with the approval of the universities and the State Governments, three-year job oriented programmes (JOP) at the first-degree level in such areas as Electronics, Computer Science, Corporate Secretaryship, Business Management, Food Service, Hotel Management, Designing. However, such programmes have also been introduced by many universities and colleges often as self-financing courses.

Generally, the awards carry such nomenclatures as B.B.A (Bachelor of Business Administration) B.B.M (Bachelor of Business Management), B.C.S (Bachelor of Corporate Secretaryship), B.F.T (Bachelor of Foreign Trade) BCA (Bachelor of Computer Application), B.E.S (Bachelor of Electronic Science), B.Sc (Fashion Design/Garment Design, B.A.S (Bachelor of Applied Sciences).

Application-Oriented Courses (AOC): Another type of programme is Application-Oriented Courses (AOC) which are enmeshed with the curriculum structure of B.A, B.Sc and B.Com programmes. One or two of the AOCs are offered as a substitute for an equivalent number of courses in the regular curriculum. For example, if a candidate opts for Biochemistry, he will be required to choose two allied papers from Zoology, Computer Science and Applied Statistics, two application oriented/applied papers from Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Agricultural Chemistry and Environmental Biochemistry.