Paper short abstract:

Demand-driven approaches are the key to sustainable skill development in rural areas in the agricultural and non-farming sectors. The demand study expresses a pilot approach in the Indian state of Meghalaya and shows the needs of the rural population in terms of vocational education and skills.

Paper long abstract:

Demand-driven approaches are increasingly being taken into consideration when it comes to the development of skills in the vocational education. This and the advantages of the individual-driven approaches, like the avoidance of mismatching, are the reasons why the author used this method to realise a field research in Meghalaya/India. The remote rural North-eastern state is facing several problems in the training of its people. The needs were analysed with the use of focussed-group discussions carried out in twelve villages in Meghalaya. The focus group interviews were supplemented by individual interviews and expert interviews and were conducted using a theory-based interview guideline. The result shows that there are multiple skills needs concerning the vocational sector like commercial needs (e.g. sales and distribution), agricultural needs (e.g. food processing) and craft needs (e.g arts and crafts and weaving). A needs-assessment is the first step to implement sustainable skill developments in Meghalaya and helps to meet the aspirations of the rural people in terms of employment and livelihood. Another main finding of the demand study was the need for teacher training, while keeping in mind that in Meghalaya, informal and traditional forms of learning are predominant. Thus the study also provides insights into how these desired skills can be taught with respect to traditional teaching methods. The contribution of the study is therefore how the skill needs of rural populations can be assessed and how they can be taught while taking local circumstances (e.g. gender) into account.