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What Others Say… Vocational Education ± Empowering Youth Education today is going through a transition... it’s the era that lays equivocal importance to academics and other co-curricular pursuits. Te focus is to prepare students for the challenges of the global world…a world that continually demands new skills and competencies. Keeping in sync with such global acceptance, the inclusion of Vocational courses in the curriculum by CBSE is a step towards empowering youth on the path of self-reliance through the enhancement of requisite skills. Te professional curriculum, which was initially for the Senior Secondary students only, is now introduced in grade IX. It is indeed a welcome step as it would go a long way in facilitating the youth of India to equip themselves with skills needed after passing out of academic institutions. Vocational Education ofers practical training and skills needed to pursue an occupation. It provides students with expertise directly aligned to excel in a chosen profession or a skilled trade. Te end result of vocational education is to enable an individual to attain self-employment and self-reliance. Although the feld of education has made progress in the past ten years, Vocational Education is still a less explored arena of the education sector and needs to be revamped. Te vocational curriculum should be introduced right from grade V and the syllabus should be evenly bifurcated for diferent classes so that once the student leaves school after passing Secondary/ Senior Secondary, s/he possesses adequate theoretical as well as practical knowledge. Te course options provided to the students should be at par with their inherent talent and skill development. We as educators need to catch them on time and provide them with broader vocational education base to lay the foundation of strong careers. Starting early in life, will go a long way in tapping the potential of the young minds, channelizing their positive energy and letting them explore the available possibilities with a bigger time frame at hand. It will give them an opportunity to choose and analyse at the same time. At the Secondary level, students who don't excel or have little interest in traditional academic areas, often meet with disappointment or disapproval from parents and teachers. When the same students would have had the exposure to vocational learning much before they reach the secondary level, they’ll be frmly grounded to act upon their professional inclination rather than worry about their failure or disappointment in academics. Here, I would also suggest giving away two diferent eligibility certifcates to the students after class X. While one would showcase their academic scores, the other would grade their professional skill and competency. In such cases, the students who not intend to move into higher education can get a skilled job. Firmer policies need to be framed to make inclusion of Vocational Education in the curriculum a success. A student from any background should be allowed to pursue a job as per the skills s/he is trained in after completing his/her secondary education. Te combination of learning and training may be the much needed solution to resolve the defcit of a skilled workforce. Vocational Education should envisage imparting the procedural knowledge and skills to the students that January-March 2014 41