NEP 2020 Seeks to Bridge Gap Between Academia and Industry

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to provide holistic, multidisciplinary, and flexible higher education. The University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have issued guidelines for Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programme (AEDP). The National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) provides on-the-job training and skilling of Indian youth.

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Quick Revision

Prelims-testable facts

01The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 promotes holistic, multidisciplinary and flexible higher education.
02The NEP 2020 emphasizes the importance of industry-academic connect and research innovation through start-up incubation centres and frontier areas of research.
03Higher education curricula in India now provide for outcome-based education, skill-based modules, project-based learning, internships and industry interaction to strengthen the linkage between academic learning and job requirements.
04The University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have issued Guidelines for Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programme (AEDP) to provide practical exposure during the course of study.
05Approximately 17.22 lakh apprentices were engaged under the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) in the last five years (2021-2022 to 2025-2026).
06The NATS 2.0 portal has been introduced as a technology-enabled platform for registration and management of apprenticeship training, including digital processing of apprenticeship contracts.
07AICTE has undertaken a comprehensive evaluation of Technical Education curricula in emerging areas and core engineering courses along with pedagogical practices to ensure alignment with evolving industry requirements.

Trap alerts

Most people think the National Education Policy 2020 focuses solely on school education, but actually it aims to transform India's entire education system from school to higher education.
Most people think the Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programme (AEDP) is a new initiative, but actually it has been implemented by the University Grants Commission and All India Council for Technical Education since they issued guidelines for its implementation.

Prelims Practice MCQs

Single facteasy

Under the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS), approximately how many apprentices have been engaged during the last five years?

A.15 lakh
B.17.22 lakh
C.20 lakh
D.25 lakh

Approximately 17.22 lakh apprentices have been engaged under NATS during the last five years.

Multiple statementsmedium

Consider the following statements regarding National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS): 1. The NATS has engaged approximately 1 crore apprentices under its scheme. 2. The Ministry of Education has released Rs 10,000 crore towards stipend support to apprentices during the last five years. 3. The NATS portal has been introduced as a technology-enabled platform for registration and management of apprenticeship training. How many of the above statements are correct?

A.Only one
B.Only two
C.All three
D.None

Statement-1 is incorrect because the fact list mentions approximately 17.22 lakh (1.722 crore) apprentices have been engaged under NATS during the last five years. Statement-2 is also incorrect as the Ministry of Education released Rs 2892.75 crore towards stipend support to apprentices during the last five years, not Rs 10,000 crore.

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