Govt. takes steps towards vocational education

New Delhi, Mar. 14 : The Government has brought out several initiatives for achieving the objectives of access, equity and equality in the field of higher education. Initiatives such as expansion of premier institutions like IITs/IIMs, provision of scholarships/fellowships to socially backward students, the SWAYAM project for providing online learning, the ranking framework for assessing the quality of institutions, the accreditation of the institutions after verification of the educational outcomes, promoting research through the IMPRINT and Uchhatar Avishakar Yojana- are being undertaken in this direction.As far as skilling and vocationalisation is concerned, there is a separate Ministry which is spearheading the initiative. Working in tandem with the Ministry for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, this Ministry has launched the Skills Assessment Matrix for Vocational Advancement of Youth (SAMVAY) that provides seamless movement from education to skill.A scheme for skilling the unemployed youth in engineering skills using the facility of the technical institutions has been launched as a part of the PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana(PMKVY).This initiative is being led by the AICTE in all the technical institutions and is expected to impart skills for about 10 lakh youth in the next three years.