Reimagining the purpose of vocational education and training : the perspective of ITI students in the National Capital Region of India

Abstract: Vocational education and training (VET) is generally believed to be a tool for the promotion of youth employability ('VET for work') and economic productivity ('VET for growth'). This rather narrow understanding has been challenged by a growing number of development scholars, who argue that it fails both theoretically (to capture the complex nature of human beings), and practically (to attract a larger number of beneficiaries to VET). Given recent policy efforts to make VET ‘aspirational’ for the India’s youth, this case study seeks to kick-start a process of reimagining the purpose of VET in India by engaging with the voices of 21 Industrial Training Institute (ITI) students in the National Capital Region. Drawing on Powell & McGrath’s Realist-Capability Model, the study retraces the reflexive processes that preceded these students’ decision to enrol in an ITI and locates their reasons for pursuing VET in the context of their individual aspirations, dreams and preferences. In doing so, the study finds that VET may serve both intrinsic and instrumental purposes, the latter of which include but go well beyond the ideas of ‘VET for work’ and ‘VET for growth’.