This book explores how the Indian education and training system prepares young people for the world of work and for the requirements of the employment market – because India is a leading industrialised nation with a very young population and a high demand for a skilled workforce. Indian experts write from a course-specific perspective, offering a comprehensive picture of educational policy, curriculum design and cultural characteristics. The virtual absence of a formalised system of vocational training in India underlines the importance of this research.

This book asks fundamental questions about the extent to which India is participating in the global shift towards knowledge-based forms of competitiveness. It charts Indian performance and progress using a unique framework benchmarked against fourteen other countries. In the course of the analysis, critical areas for improvement are identified, and the book provides detailed and objective insights for policy-makers and researchers to facilitate change and institutional reform in India. Readers will derive a comprehensive understanding of India’s performance and prospects as it emerges as a serious global economic player. A particular feature of the work is the development of an original knowledge footprint concept that measures the extent and impact of knowledge development and diffusion domestic and internationally.The views expressed in this book are the author’s.

This book provides an insight into the complex entanglements between African countries and India, China, and South Korea from multidisciplinary perspectives connecting approaches from cultural, anthropological, literary, and music studies and art history. The three parts present a regional focus, namely Africa-India, Africa-South Korea, and Africa-China while the single contributions speak to each other and offer complementary insights. At the same time, the chapters also link across the regional realms as they deal with similar topics, such as travelling music genres. In part I, for Pombo material culture is the starting point to investigate the connections between the islands of the Indian Ocean and India by questioning the construction of memory. It highlights various aspects of the multilayered history of connections between Africa, the islands, and India. Part II gathers contributions that are complimentary to each other and therefore contribute to the understanding of the complex entanglements in area studies. Part III (Africa-South Korea) explores the impact of African-American arts and artists on South Korea's popular culture as well as the changing perception of artists of African descent in visual popular culture. It shows the impact of Korean content in South Africa. Ute Fendler holds the chair of Romance and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Bayreuth. She is the deputy spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence "Africa Multiple. Her research interests cover literature and film cultures of the Caribbean, West Africa, the Indian Ocean, and South America. Yongkyu Chang is a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea and teaches in the Division of African Studies and Graduate School of International Area Studies. He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology at KwaZulu-Natal University in South Africa and researched various social and cultural issues across Africa. He has expertise in African belief systems and currently working on a project exploring spirit possession in Zanzibar.

This book addresses what is, perhaps, the single most important issue for vocational education; its relatively low standing in an era of high aspiration. The work explores the nature, extent and consequences for an educational sector that whilst having an increasingly important role in contemporary societies is seen to be of low standing across both countries with developed and developing economies. Some of the standing is associated with the occupation it serves and this is highlighted in an era of high aspiration by young people and their parents. The consequences are far-reaching. This includes how governments and community view and support vocational education, parents and familiars advise about participation in it and young people’s decision-making associated with their post-school pathways. More than describing this problem, the focus of this collection is how this issue can be redressed through the actions of supra-government agencies, governments, schools in tertiary education institutions, industry and professional bodies and employers. It sets out the quality and extent of societal sentiments in shaping how vocational education and the occupation it serves are projected, across countries, continents and cultures, and offers a range of perspectives and contributions from scholars on how this issue might be redressed. These contributions are drawn together and synthesised into sets of propositions, practices and approaches directed towards governments, schooling and tertiary education institutions, educators, researchers, industry and professional bodies and employers. In this way, the book seeks to provide an authoritative, seminal, comprehensive and central text to understand and respond to this central issue for vocational education.

This book reports on the findings from a research study of vocational and higher education graduates’ employability challenges. The nature and extent of these challenges, their underlying causes, and effective strategies to address the problems in this area are all analysed from a multiple-stakeholder paradigm. The primary focus of the book is on governments; secondary, vocational, and higher education systems; and industry employers - rather than graduates themselves - in order to highlight the policy and strategy implications for governments, industry and educational systems. Readers will acquire comprehensive information on the nature and extent of graduate employability in terms of country-specific challenges, together with a deeper understanding of their complex causes, and the inter-relatedness between governments, educational systems, industry sectors, and potential employers. They will also be provided with a broad range of stakeholder strategies designed to effectively address these challenges within integrated national and regional approaches.

Tobias Aberle examines how an entrepreneurship training helps disadvantaged youths in rural parts of Bihar, India, to cope with structural conditions that enable or constrain them. The present research reveals that young entrepreneurs can be divided into two groups: those who developed personal initiative and thus coped with limiting structural conditions very proactively, and those who solely behaved in a reactive way. For many entrepreneurs, the self-employed activity was only a Plan B, as in reality they sought for high-prestige career jobs. IFor entrepreneurship training to become a tool of empowerment, the range of training must be significantly adjusted in accordance with young trainees’ social and educational backgrounds. In addition, a functioning ecosystem for entrepreneurship education must be in place, which ensures support for individual entrepreneurs through mentorship and networks.

As the economic growth and social development of a nation is reliant on its workforce, it is essential to increase the workforce’s employability through technical and vocational education. Through these programs, the nation’s workers will be able to acquire skills and flexibility in order to navigate across sectors of the economy and industry. However, due to gender disparities and socioeconomic statuses within society, women from a lower economic background are unable to gain access to these programs, hindering their career development and economic independence. Gender Issues in Technical and Vocational Education Programs is an essential critical resource that probes the issue of gender equity in specialized educational programs, such as vocational or technical education programs. It also presents global initiatives that are being undertaken to enhance the access to technical and vocational education programs to all citizens. Divided into two sections, this publication provides comprehensive coverage on understanding human resource skilling through vocational and training programs and promoting gender equity through skill development, making it an ideal resource for academicians, researchers, social scientists, educators, policymakers, government officials, and professionals.

Many students across the globe seek further education for future employment opportunities. Vocational schools offer direct training to develop the skills needed for employment. New emphasis has been placed on reskilling the workforce as technology has infiltrated all aspects of business. Teachers must be prepared to teach these new skill requirements to allow students to directly enter the workforce with the necessary competences intact. As the labor market and industry are changing, it is essential to stay current with the best teaching practices within vocational education courses to provide the future workforce with the proper tools and knowledge. The Research Anthology on Vocational Education and Preparing Future Workers discusses the development, opportunities, and challenges of vocational education courses and how to best prepare students for future employment. It presents the best practices in curriculum development for vocational education courses and analyzes student outcomes. Covering topics such as industry-academia collaboration, student satisfaction, and competency-based education, this major reference work is an essential resource for academic administration, pre-service teachers, educators of vocational education, libraries, employers, government officials, researchers, and academicians.

This book brings together a broad range of approaches and methodologies relevant to international comparative vocational education and training (VET). Revealing how youth in transition is affected by economic crises, it provides essential insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the various systems and prospects of VET in contexts ranging from North America to Europe, (e.g. Spain, Germany or the UK) to Asia (such as China, Thailand and India). Though each country examined in this volume is affected by the economic crisis in a different way, the effects are especially apparent for the young generation. In many countries the youth unemployment rate is still very high and the job perspectives for young people are often limited at best. The contributions in this volume demonstrate that VET alone cannot solve these problems, but can be used to support a smooth transition from school to work. If the quality of VET is high and the status and job expectations are good, VET can help to fill the skills gap, especially at the intermediate skill level. Furthermore, VET can also offer a realistic alternative to the university track for young people in many countries.