The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in collaboration with Sri Vishwakarma Skills University (SVSU), conceptualized and implemented a pilot on new employer-led Apprenticeship Scheme within the Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector with NOCN Group, UK being the knowledge partner. A dissemination workshop on findings of an interim review of the pilot project was organized on 20 th July 2021 with participation from FCDO, SVSU, BFSI SSC, NSDC, NOCN and Niti Aayog.
The pilot is one its kind in India, which focus on integration of the apprenticeship in higher education. The degree apprenticeship programmes are well established in UK. FCDO and SVSU have collaborated to implement this pilot to learn lessons from such a programme in India.
The key features of the degree apprenticeship pilot include
- industry engagement in developing course curriculum
- continuous formative assessment of the candidates;
- end point assessment (EPA) by neutral/independent assessment body
- apprenticeship certification and degree in job role from the university to the candidates;
- avenues for candidates to be ‘Earning while Learning’.
The NOCN group provided the technical expertise for conceptualizing the pilot and in its implementation by (i) training of teachers, trainers, assessors, employer mentors and EPA assessors (ii) curriculum development (iii) EPA assessment and moderation of results, in consultation with key stakeholders such as NSDC and BFSI SSC.
During the online meeting participants reflected on key learnings, implementation challenges, policy recommendations and discussed the strategies to strengthen its implementation.
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