As GDP began to grow rapidly from the turn of the country, India started experiencing skill shortages. We have argued elsewhere (Mehrotra, 2014; Mehrotra et al., 2013) that skill shortages will continue as long as the secondary school system does not vocationalise much more rapidly, and makes technical and vocational education and training (TVET) aspirational. Making TVET acquire a better status is a challenge that faces many economies, but nowhere more so than in India. Table 7.1 shows that South Asia has amongst lowest enrolment of the relevant age cohort in TVET.

Even more than raising the demand for training is the need for expanding the supply of VET. The current VET system in India is highly fragmented as we will discuss in this chapter. There is urgent need for this fragmentation to end, and a common platform to be created on the basis of which VET provision in India begins to work as a system, rather than a multitude of institutions offering certificates unconnected to each other, which give no assurance that the certificates can be treated as actual competencies to perform a task in a job environment, which is the currently prevailing situation. This is an important reason why a National Vocational or Skill Qualifications Framework (NSQF), is needed to serve as a common platform for all providers. But it will also enable students to access and progress in VET more easily while giving them the ready employability that current VET does not offer. That is why the Government of India's decision in 2011 to introduce a NSQF in the secondary school and higher technical education and VET institutions of the country is a move that will foster inclusiveness. Too many young people who need skills which make them employable are remaining excluded from the education and training system.