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Vocational education and training has become a very important topic since the beginning of the 21^st century (OECD 2015; Biavaschi et al. 2012; Hoffman 2011; OECD 2010a; OECD 2010b). This is firstly related to the somewhat precarious youth employment situation, and secondly to emerging economies being unable to find qualified professionals in various industry segments (McKinsey 2012). While the general level of education has increased in almost all countries, the qualification profiles of young educated professionals often do not match the competences demanded by the labour market.

India, as an emerging economy, is one of the countries making rapid strides in this field. Globalisation as well as economic and social interdependence are reflected in the organisational structure, while the need for qualified professionals is just as varied. The thriving business relations between Switzerland and India are testimony to this development. Export relations as well as direct investments have intensified in the past few years. These developments are expected to be sustained, and emerging countries in particular are expected to be among the economic superpowers of the future. Swiss industry is therefore interested in good trade relations with these countries, and is stimulating bilateral relations through different measures.

Gaining the quality edge in competition requires qualified personnel

The Swiss economy is one of the most competitive in the world (Schwab, Sala-i-Martín, & World Economic Forum 2014). Its comparative advantages vis-à-vis international competitors are often due to its qualitative prominence rather than due to price (Strahm 2008, p. 159). To ensure high quality is achieved worldwide, even international Swiss companies have to rely on highly qualified personnel. The recruiting of academically qualified professionals does not usually pose a problem. However, there is a lack of qualified professionals with practical expertise who can measure up to the technological state of development of Swiss companies. Yet they are indispensable in order to exploit the growth potential in the country.

The shortage of qualified professionals with practical education and training to a high technological standard is generally one of the biggest challenges in emerging economies. The reasons for the shortage of such professionals are many, some of which include the structure of the education system, the employment market regulations or the fact that the local industry does not predominantly manufacture to the same technological standards as the international companies based there. While governments invest a lot in general education and academic fields in most countries, the simultaneous development of a vocational education and training system oriented towards the needs of the employment market is neglected.

India is regarded as the country with the least proportion of youth being trained in vocational education and training (Mehrotra et al. 2014). On average, only about two per cent of the people employed in India have undergone vocational education and training (Mehrotra 2014). There are various reasons for this. The education system of countries with a colonial background is characterised by the colonial power’s historical type of education system. Lang-Wojtasik (2013) considers this as a crucial characteristic «in which notions about education are institutionalised to promote colonial management. There have been significant attempts particularly in the area of higher education to establish national educational institutions that embody a national mindset and the principles of colonial power» (p. 217). In India’s case, it is the British education system which has exerted an enduring influence. Education, including vocational education and training, takes place in the context of schools or universities. Consequently, the discrepancy between supply and demand in the job market is largely dependent on the country and the economy’s level of development. A so-called skills mismatch is prevalent (OECD 2015; ILO 2014). This does not apply to emerging economies alone; it can even be seen in Europe or in North America (Renold et al. 2014, Manufacturing Institute 2011). This disparity between academically educated professionals and the demand in the job market has been further aggravated in many European countries by the current economic difficulties.

The systems for general education are not solely to blame for the lack of practically qualified professionals in Indian industry. Vocational education and training systems that are oriented to the demands of the employment market and that can keep abreast with technical developments in industry are less common across the world. They usually also have low prestige among the population. This is a particular challenge, especially in India, owing to the social strata and the caste mentality that continues to prevail. Only the German speaking countries of Europe, in which the dual vocational education and training system[2] is deeply anchored, enjoy a long tradition in this regard, and thus have a certain prestige. Along with tradition, perceptions of value or history, there are other factors that could explain these countries’ deep involvement in vocational education and training. Studies in political science have shown that the typological differences in capitalist economic systems provide another explanation (see Finegold 1999; Hall & Soskice 2001; Thelen 2004, among others). Hence, the so-called coordinated market economies distinguish themselves because they have well-established social partnerships, manage salary negotiations at system level, and their companies cooperate with each other. In contrast, there is a lack of coordination among the organisations and the social partners in so-called liberal market economies. Competition is the key guiding factor and this occasionally has an effect on the attitude towards vocational education and training. Competition comes before cooperation. This makes it difficult to introduce vocational education and training at a system level in a comparable measure to that in German speaking countries. Without central institutions, such as the professional organisations (also called industry associations) in Switzerland, which regulate cooperation between companies, it would probably be difficult to develop an actual vocational education and training system that has strong support from industry. Business associations exist in India as well. However, they have not yet addressed operative educational topics systematically, until now, and they act only at the politico-strategic level.

To summarise, it can be ascertained that globalisation and internationalisation of the economy are leading to permanent complaints about the lack of highly qualified professionals in these countries as well. The multitude of international companies that, based on their own experience, are aware of the advantages of the vocational education and training system oriented towards the employment market are asking for measures to be implemented for the training of professionals. The low awareness level, the focus on dual vocational education and training in the German language region, as well as the influence of the colonial powers and their educational tradition in the emerging economies are also reasons why there are no role models for dual vocational education and training concepts in the developing economies.

From company-specific self-help initiatives to government commitment

The advantages of the Swiss vocational education and training system are brought to mind particularly by Swiss companies with production locations overseas when their growth is impeded by the lack of local practically trained professionals. As the accounts of Swiss companies in this book show, companies implemented different self-help initiatives in the past to raise the qualification standards of the local professionals in their own organisations, and in this way to remain competitive. This was possible especially for the larger companies. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this is a problem because of the high costs. As more and more SMEs have been investing directly in India in the past years, professionals with similar skills to Swiss workers are also in demand in SMEs, and it is necessary to implement a systematic approach that allows even small companies to offer dual VET.

Numerous public vocational education and training programmes have been initiated in India to gear the country up to face the new challenges. The article by Ursula Renold and Vipul Agarwal summarises some of the important developments. A major obstacle in societies with an Anglo-Saxon school tradition is the lack of prestige associated with vocational education and training in particular, and more generally because there is a lack of commitment from the industries themselves. Vocational education and training is usually associated with blue collar work. It shows no promise for the future of the youth in the eyes of the majority of the population. In addition, there is no permeability between the individual educational programmes. As a result, it is difficult for both the government and industry to break this vicious circle by introducing appropriate measures.

Where vocational education and training schools exist, there are few opportunities to give them access to the latest state-of-the-art technology in line with the rapid transformation of the working world. Government authorities lack not just the know-how but usually also the financial options to equip the school infrastructure on an ongoing basis and to provide advanced training and qualifications for the teachers. The inertia of school-centric vocational education and training and the narrow financial margin diametrically oppose the rapid technological progress of emerging economies, which results in organisations’ increased dissatisfaction with local young professionals. However, even young professionals are affected by this, because entering the employment market becomes difficult for those without appropriate training opportunities. The Indian government strategy announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007 (National Skill Development Policy) to vocationally train over 500 million young Indians by 2022 is very welcome (Government of India 2009; Mehrotra, Gandhi & Sahoo 2013, p. 26). However, education requires time, and this is therefore a highly ambitious target, which will need much help if it is to be achieved.

Vocational education and training initiatives from across the world

Many governments around the world are trying to improve the condition of Indian education through cooperation and private export of services. These governments are often supported financially by the Indian government. In a country like India, in which over 30 million young people are supposed to complete any form of professional education each year, all initiatives are welcome (Mehrotra, Gandhi & Sahoo 2013). It remains to be seen which of these initiatives will be sustainable, and whether the government will be able to continue to provide greater funding.

Switzerland is one of these numerous foreign actors involved in the initiatives described in this book. Due to its strategic choices and financial options a country like Switzerland can occupy only a niche within the range of available models that exist globally. In addition, Switzerland wants to approach this niche with a solution that differs from those of other countries: The companies themselves – not public actors – must take the lead and make a commitment to their own young professionals in line with the motto: No employment market oriented vocational education and training without substantial commitment from industry.

Broadening the perspective: a systemic approach to vocational education and training

The idea behind the Swiss vocational education and training initiative is to involve private companies in a pilot project and implement a dual VET role model on site in a number of Swiss companies. This would be comparable to our dual VET and would integrate the current Indian vocational education institutions. This should first give rise to a role model, as described in Part III of this book, which would create acceptance in companies and among the public and take into consideration all factors relevant to the system. The objective is to improve the competitiveness of the companies, while simultaneously contributing towards alleviating the poverty of trained professionals and their families. This model differs from Switzerland’s current efforts to improve vocational education and training in India in that it creates a bridge between the institutions imparting professional education and a cluster of companies that provide training for the same occupation. Industries are encouraged to work together, because there must be agreement on what content should be taught in these professions and how the professional education institutions and companies should use their respective comparative advantages to capitalise on their strengths when providing training.

This initiative requires a series of follow-up projects in order to ensure its long-term success. The pilot project described in this book is merely an initiation phase implemented to achieve a type of proof of concept. Over the next ten to twenty years, partnerships between national and local authorities, professional associations, coordinating entities, educational institutions and other actors are to be tested and developed in the corresponding regions, and sustainability is to be created.

Since the professional associations of the employment system (formerly industry associations) have a major role to play in creating framework curricula and drafting ordinances in Switzerland, it is essential that a corresponding professional association or – from a functional point of view – another coordinating entity is prepared to collaborate. As such, complex institutional arrangements can be realised only in the medium or long term, and interim solutions in the form of private intermediary institutions for the pilot phase are also needed. The target in the medium term is for the Swiss professional association to provide its know-how in the development of vocational education and training to the partner organisation or the participating companies against a licence fee, help with the implementation and monitor the quality of the training being conducted. Viewed in this light, we can speak of an export of services. The regional vocational education and training institutes are included as much as possible in the schooling part, with the Indian government bearing the costs here, too – as in Switzerland – so that vocational education and training can be offered without significant costs for the Indian students. This would improve the equal opportunities in the education system.

The Swiss Vocational Education and Training Initiative India has several objectives. The main one is to enable small and medium-sized Swiss companies to train their young professionals themselves in their own company and to the required level of quality, for which they would be supported by their professional association’s competence centre. In this way, they would also be shaping the qualification standards in the industry to a certain extent and contributing to worldwide acknowledgement of vocational education and training as an institution. However, this initiative also aims to contribute towards integrating young Indians as broadly as possible into the employment market, enabling them to have access to vocational and private prospects, and thus reducing the deep-seated values regarding prestige. Last but not least, the provisions of the employment market regulations will be linked meaningfully with education.

Anthology

This book describes the background, concepts and results of the Swiss Vocational Education and Training Initiative India. Part I consolidates the important elements of the Swiss and Indian education and vocational education and training systems. Part II presents the background, point of departure and the guiding principles for the pilot project from various perspectives, and describes the various approaches taken to date by the private sector and the state in the area of vocational education and training. Part III describes the conceptual aspects of this innovation and the challenges that need to be overcome. Part IV forms the core of the book. This section explains in detail the development and implementation of both pilot projects in Pune and Bangalore. Part V gives a summary of the evaluation results and highlights the model approach’s development potential. In the final part, the editors draw conclusions based on the results.

As is often the case in all innovative projects, many people were also involved in the pilot project of the Swiss Vocational Education and Training Initiative India. They often provided their services and support free of charge. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who were willing to support the idea of this very risky project by providing personnel or funding, and who have thus enabled many young people in the world to have access to vocational education and training. On the Swiss side, we would like to thank the following people and institutions: Federal councillors Doris Leuthard and Johann Schneider-Ammann, who supported the initiation and execution of the project, the members of Swissmem responsible for the initiative, as well as the Swiss Employers Confederation, the Swiss Indian Chamber of Commerce, officials of the former Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology (OPET) as well as the current State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), the Swiss Embassy and the Swiss General Consulate in India, members of the Federal Vocational and Professional Education and Training Commission, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET) as well as the evaluators of the pilot project. On the Indian side, we would like to thank the national authority representatives as well as the regional authorities of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the FICCI and CII chambers of industry, the dedicated staff at the National Skill Development Agency and the National Skill Development Corporation, who encouraged us to persevere in the challenging journey until we reached the finishing line. They encouraged us to apply a bottom-up approach to the pilot project, acquire the support of companies, involve local vocational education and training schools and train Indian teachers for our special requirements. Our special thanks go to the local implementation partner Nacks Venture in Bangalore and SkillSonics in Bangalore and Zurich, who made the success of the project possible in a short space of time and with great flexibility, together with all the Swiss participants. We would also like to thank all the authors for their readiness to provide a summary of their experiences, thus making the accomplishments accessible to a wide group of interested people. We hope this book will also contribute towards identifying the opportunities and risks involved in adapting the dual vocational education and training model in other countries, and help many other organisations and actors in the working world to develop their own internationalisation strategies.

With the Swiss Vocational Education and Training Initiative India, the editors are convinced that Switzerland has initiated a form of bilateral cooperation which will help not only to provide a perspective within the country and internationally but will also contribute to increasing the prestige of vocational education and training worldwide.

Word of thanks for financial support

Publication of this book in English and German was made possible thanks to the generous financial support of Swissmem and the Johann Jacob Rieter Foundation.

We would also like to thank Ms Esther Reist, Ms Lynn Grob and Hylia Ismaili of Probst Partner AG, as well as Maria Esther Egg, Johanna Kemper, Thomas Bolli and Katie Caves of the Education Systems research division at ETH Zurich’s KOF Swiss Economic Institute for their valuable support. Finally, we wish to thank Glenn Zasman, Luxemburg, for his excellent and efficient editing services.

Zurich, June 2016

Ursula Renold

Franz Probst