Risks and returns for vocational edupreneurs

Transforming the skilled lot is what the government of India is looking forward to. Government of India along with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is creating a niche for vocational training and job oriented studies for youngpreneurs. Players like Aptech, Aisect, Cadd Centre, VLCC, Jetking, NIIT and many others are taking a constructive step forward in making India, skilled India.

Market at glance

According to the reports of Indian Vocational Education Sector: Trends & Opportunities (2012-2017) by MarketResearch.com, a comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services on the web, Vocational Education and Training (VET) in India being a concurrent subject, the responsibility is shared by both central and state governments. The government has set a target to skill 500 million people by the end of the year 2020. It has already started working in this direction and has taken a number of important initiatives. Traditionally, vocational education training in India was provided by institutes in the public sector, but now many private institutes have forayed in either alone or in association in government body in the form of public private partnership (PPP).

Hindrances to overcome

Though education sector as a prime services category has proven to be equally profitable as retail, F&B and  Health & Beauty, but the matter of the fact is that every business faces its own set of challenges. For edupreneurs, starting a vocational training institute can be extremely exciting as well as challenging. It is hard to delegate work to anyone as there is a lack of skilled manpower in the service sector. Apart from hurdles like lack of funds, lack of experience, small or no social and marketing network and time management bothers an Indian brand to establish itself overseas.

According to Shrutidhar Paliwal,Vice President & Head, Corporate Communications & Media Relations, Aptech Ltd.,“Availability of funds to start the business, high real estate around the students catchment areas, low visibility in hinterland, tier- II and III markets and high cost of royalty fees in some cases, specially with regard to international franchisees are the big time nightmares for the vocational category of education in India.”

However, for Jetking Infotrain Ltd. a lot of the government courses and affiliations are not well linked to place the students in jobs relevant to the skills they’ve undergone training for, which is the biggest challenge for the industry. ”These programs more than focusing on providing great job opportunities to students sidetrack into focusing on increasing the certification count. Another problem is of fly by night operators. These are companies set up to do roaring business for about six months and then they suddenly disappear. Also, we have come across many fraudulent centers in various part of the country that are involved in recruitment frauds. This causes a negative impression for the vocation industry at large,” says Avinash Bharwani – Vice-President, Jetking.

Apart from these, some of the challenges that VET confronts in India are low relevance of vocational education courses to job market needs which leads to low success of VET graduates. There is a shortage of quality faculty in vocational training institutes as there is no provision for training of vocational teachers. Lack of fund in these institutes and less private participation are also some of the major setbacks for the segment.