Background
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has an important role in imparting skills training for employment, self employment and enterprises. However, technical and vocational education and training is often regarded as inferior or as second choice after professional or higher education. Education system continues to be primarily directed towards offering university degree. The stigma attached to technical and vocational occupation still persists.

The international efforts particularly by the UNESCO, has been directed to provide TVET its due role by linking skills training and the world of work, particularly among the marginalized people.

Strategies
SANKALP has been adopting the internationally acknowledged second strategies and practices in technical and vocational education and training. These strategies include;

• access and equity (enhancing opportunities for all individuals, particularly the children and young people in basic education to participate in inclusive technical and vocational education and training);
• gender equality (roviding greater opportunities and facilities to women and girls to participate in TVET);
• reaching to the marginalized people ( providing greater coverage to the marginalized groups; including the rural poor, adolescents, indigenous people and the homeless);
• linkage between education, industry and agriculture (providing closer links and interfaces between TVET, industry and agriculture to increase the relevance and output of TVET in the world of work).

Approaches and activities
In view of the challenges of globalization, rapid technological changes, economic uncertainties, demanding resources and hierarchical education system, the TVET programmes need to be innovative, flexible and relevant. The Organisation, therefore, has been imparting programmes to link skills training to employed, self-employed and enterprises, and has been facilitating a process of economic empowerment of marginalized people.

The Organisation has been conducting programmes to impart skills both in traditional and non-traditional sectors in generic methods, subsuming formal and informal forms of technical and vocational education and training. Skills are understood to comprise the capabilities needed to enter or re-enter the world of work which means to secure or re-secure a livelihood.

The TVET, promoted by the Organisation, adopted the following interrelated approaches. They are

• learner-driven training (technical and vocational training, reflecting the needs and aspirations of the learners, with emphasis on accessibility and equity);
• market response (relating training with local market demands as well as imparting skills in marketing and entrepreneurship);
• relevance to local context( traning adopting to the employment and self employment need of the local conditions);

The thrust, therefore, is to integrate market-driven strategies into design and implementation of pro-poor/ marginalized groups- oriented training strategies. The training content is driven by a people-centered and local-demand pedagogy, which upgrades locally available skills, and empowers the people to secure livelihoods and face any crisis in their jobs.