Today there is a gap between marketable skills of the majority of workforce and the expectations of their roles. Many undergraduates have difficulties when moving from education to employment as there is no convergence between acquired education and required skill sets. Indian Government has recently introduced one of the national policies such as NSQF for developing link between education, skills and aptitude. YCMOU intends to impart skill education using the ‘Learn and Earn' approach. This chapter present all implementation details of technologically driven changes to impart ‘Industrial and Business skills' effectively. A diploma programme offers flexible teaching-learning environments aiming to offer adequate online and offline tools for delivery of information, interaction and collaboration. It also offers ‘On-Job Training (OJT)' to provide an opportunity for the learners to work in real environment. A mandatory OJT is aiming for grooming of appropriate skills. A novel feature of this diploma programme is the use of self and peer assessment processes which encourages learning.
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In the current scenario of education system, the delivery of the knowledge or information to the students is generally theoretical in nature, it lacks the practical aspect. The skill that required by student to become successful self-employed entrepreneur or to get better employability, is not taught in schools and colleges. Hence, there is need to revamp and/or design the courses that aids in building of new skills, skill upgradation, and innovative thinking not only for existing jobs but also jobs that are to be created. The biggest challenge of Indian education system is to address large segments of the population that have been deprived from main stream of education and enrich them with an opportunity to acquire employable skills. The Government of India as a policy initiative has now called for skills to be developed at speed and at scale. Technological advancements especially in mobile phones have opened exciting new possibilities to address these issues which have brought the Open Universities a promising alternative in India (Kanwar, 2016).
Among all the Open Universities in India, “Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU)”, has been acknowledged by “Commonwealth of Learning (CoL)” for Institutional Excellence in Distance Education.Since of its existence, YCMOU put thrust on reaching the unreached people. During the last couple of years, YCMOU offers novel and innovative academic programmes based on the needs of the industry (Kanwar, 2016). With a view to bridging the gap that currently exists between the trained manpower needs of industry and the kind of graduates produced by universities, YCMOU has entered into collaborative arrangements with various industries. A Government approved ‘Learn and Earn Scheme’ also operates for apprentices working in electronics, electrical, mechanical and automotive sector. School of Science and Technology of YCMOU had experience of successful implementation of 3 Diploma programmes at ‘Level 6 of NSQF’ under ‘Learn and Earn Scheme’, with cumulative enrollment of about 20,000+ students at all semesters. Under this scheme, student is placed in relevant industry as an ‘Apprentice’ and work full time for ‘On Job Training (OJT)’. Under this scheme, industry pays monthly stipend to each attached student as per the ‘Apprentice Act’ provisions which are enough for the cost of living and education.
Recently, School of Science and Technology of YCMOU has designed ‘Diploma in Industrial and Business skills’ for underprivileged with aim to upgrade the skills which can make them suitably skilled to go for self-employment or earn a suitable employment. After gaining experience of successful implementation of ‘Learn and Earn Scheme’, school has embedded the latest state of art of technology for effective quality of course content delivery and for assessment (Ahalt el at., 2015). This chapter shares the development and implementation of technologically driven changes to impart ‘Industrial and Business skills’ effectively. The programme offers flexible teaching-learning environments aiming to offer adequate online and offline tools for delivery of information, interaction and collaboration. It also offers ‘On-Job Training (OJT)’ to provide an opportunity for the learners to work in real environment. A mandatory OJT is aiming for grooming of appropriate skills. A novel feature of this approach is the use of self and peer assessment processes which encourages learning. The model presented here can be replicated for similar socioeconomic conditions across the country.