Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country. Presently, the country faces a demand – supply mismatch, as the economy needs more ‘skilled’ workforce than that is available. In the higher education sphere, knowledge and skills are required for diverse forms of employment in the sectors of education, health care, manufacturing and other services.

Government of India, taking note of the requirement for skill development among students, launched National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF) which was later on assimilated into National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF). Various Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) are developing Qualification Packs (QPs), National Occupational Standards (NOSs) and assessment mechanisms in their respective domains, in alignment with the needs of the industry.

In view of this, the UGC implemented the scheme of Community Colleges from 2013-14 in pilot mode on the initiative of the MHRD. Thereafter, realizing the importance and the necessity for developing skills among students, and creating work ready manpower on large scale, the Commission decided to implement the scheme of Community Colleges as one of its independent schemes from the year 2014-15. The Commission also launched another scheme of B.Voc. Degree programme to expand the scope of vocational education and also to provide vertical mobility to the students admitted into Community Colleges for Diploma programmes to a degree programme in the Universities and Colleges. While these two schemes were being implemented, it was also realized that there is a need to give further push to vocational education on a even larger scale. Accordingly, ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyay Centres for Knowledge Acquisition and Upgradation of Skilled Human Abilities and Livelihood (KAUSHAL)’ was also incorporated. Since all these three provisions serve a common purpose, they are merged into a single scheme for providing skill based education under National Skills Qualifications Framework.

The National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) is a competency-based framework that organizes qualifications according to a series of knowledge, skills and aptitude. The NSQF levels, graded from one to ten, are defined in terms of learning outcomes which the learner must possess regardless of whether they are obtained through formal, non-formal or informal learning. National Occupational Standards (NOS) are statements of the skills, knowledge and understanding needed for effective performance in a job role and are expressed as outcomes of competent performance. They list down what an individual performing that task should know and also are able to do. These standards can form the benchmarks for various education and training programs to match with the job requirements. Just as each job role may require the performance of a number of tasks, the combination of NOSs corresponding to these tasks form the Qualification Pack (QP) for that job role. The NOSs and QPs for each job role corresponding to each level of the NSQF are being formulated by the respective Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) set up by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) with industry leadership. The curriculum which is based on NOSs and QPs would thus automatically comply with NSQF.

The specific outcomes expected from implementation of NSQF are as follows:

• Mobility between vocational and general education by alignment of degrees with NSQF.
• Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), allowing transition from non-formal to organized job market.
• Standardized, consistent, nationally acceptable outcomes of training across the country through a national quality assurance framework.
• Global mobility of skilled workforce from India, through international equivalence of NSQF.
• Mapping of progression pathways within sectors and cross-sectorally.
• Approval of NOS/QPs as national standards for skill training.