The establishment of a TECHNICAL and VOCATIONAL UNIVERSITY in India

A proposal from Javeed Mirza* (javeed.mirza@gmail.com)
Most young minority members in India are underprivileged and face multiple challenges... the biggest being the Right to decent living…. they are denied jobs, face discrimination and have no resources and training to run a business enterprise. The establishment of Vocational and Technical skills centers, run on secular and non-discriminatory lines, with Entrepreneurship training and resources in-built in all courses, will help the marginalized unemployed address their acute problem of unemployment. It will develop a workforce that is ready to meet the human capital needs of various industries. The skills training centers will address the problem of acute unemployment** in a number of ways:

• Its criteria of enrollment will be flexible...i.e. It will accept students from middle school and high school as well as from colleges. Students from all language backgrounds will be welcome. (This will allow the High school drop outs and Madrasa students to enroll).
• It will be established in towns and in city pockets that have high minority unemployment.
• It will encourage and assist in women’s active enrollment in the centers and provide them with specific training conducive to their growth and which provides them with decent employment
• It will provide intensive skills training to students in identified areas like 1) Health care 2) Textiles 3) Food sector 4) IT/ITES 5) Tourism 6) Services (Hotel industry etc.) 7) Construction 8) Academic (Teaching) 9) Construction 10) Retailing 11) Telecom etc.
•  Skills training will be augmented by exposure to English, to Soft skills and to Computer Literacy, so each student will develop the confidence to meet job challenges of the modern market
• Entrepreneurship Training with resource facility (connectivity to govt. instituted loans and other incentives) will be available to all students undergoing skills training, so they can opt for starting their own business.
• It will establish linkage with all industrial sectors and identify the industrial job needs and prioritize training in the requisite need areas. There is a current mismatch*** between industrial job needs and availability of skilled manpower. 
• It will enter into agreements with private and state sector companies towards developing Internship and Apprenticeship for its students. It will establish a direct recruitment channel with the industries.
• It will build collaboration/partnership with reputed skills training centers in the USA, Germany etc. so it can avail the latest technology, syllabi, curriculum and Lab equipment/machinery from these international partners. It will follow their lead while adapting to local conditions.

The pooling of many Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurial skill centers across the country will be done by the establishment of a centrally located University. The University will have modern Labs at all skills training centers to impart practical training. Certified teachers with experience will provide the training. Master teachers from the central university will conduct live Video sessions to augment the local training. Available freeware like www.khanacademy.org and MOOC (Massive Online Open ware courses) will be utilized and the same developed, that is pertinent to the specific skills that are sought to be taught.
The Indian Govt.’s failure to provide tens of millions of jobs, touted in its election manifesto of 2014, is forcing it to spend money on the creation of Job skills centers. However, govt. bureaucracy, corruption and red tape regulations are big obstacles to the implementation of its skills centers and this is where the Private sector needs to step in. The Minority University must utilize its assets wherever possible … Waqf buildings and Land, community pooling of resources; Interest accumulated in banks that is not withdrawn (as it is considered un-islamic); tap Social Entrepreneurship (those who give high priority to society’s well-being, besides their own profitability) ; tap CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funding’s (It is mandated that all Big corporations allocate 2% of their Net profits to meet their social obligations); National and international private philanthropic  organizations (ex.. the Azim Premji foundation for Education and the Belinda and Bill gates foundation etc.)
Towards making a beginning for the establishment of the University, contributions and funding from private donors is required. I call on the Educational fraternity and its supporting institutions to help forge a new kind of University, relevant to modern times, that will take up the torch of enlightenment and provide decent living to its impoverished and marginalized community members.
Thank you very much

• Javeed Mirza is a former Teacher who worked at the New York City Board of Education. He has a Bachelors in Engineering with Honors from Osmania University and a Masters and Phd (ABD) in Economics from the New School University in New York as well as an Advanced certificate in Computers in Education from Long Island University, NY.  He ran an IT Consulting company providing Staffing services for many years. He is also a social activist. Currently he is engaged in School reform.

** One aspect of acute unemployment is the low quality of Teaching in most colleges in India. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has declared that it is in the process of closing 800 Engineering colleges across the country. NASSCOM study found that only 7% of the Engineering graduates are employable.  The CTET (Central Teacher Eligibility Test) conducted by the CBSE board had 7,26,000 test takers and only 29,000 passed the test.
*** In some industrial sectors there is exists a mismatch between Industrial job needs and availability of required skilled manpower. The NSDC (National skills development Corp) states that 18.3 million jobs are required in the manufacturing sector. The National Academy of Construction states that 450,000 plumbers, carpenter, bar-benders, electrician, mason etc. jobs are required in the Construction sector.