Technical and vocational education and training is the economic backbone of a country, the mainstay of prosperity. Most industrialized countries in the world invest heavily in developing young people into skilled human resources with knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes in line with the demands of the labor market and industry.

 When studying the history of countries that have reached a high level of industrial development, it is seen that they have invested adequately in the development of youth skills and have made technical and vocational education and training the medium to address the gap between industrial needs and the skills of the produced manpower. For developing countries like Nepal, it is necessary to promote small and medium industries based on the natural resources and resources available in the country.

The demand for skilled manpower who can operate industries and businesses, and who can create self-employment and employment is increasing. In this context, the Government of Nepal is operating various technical and vocational education programs with technical education as a high priority. To ensure equitable access to technical and vocational education and training, the program has been expanded with the goal of providing technical schools to all 753 local levels. And, billions of rupees are being invested annually for this. 

The currently operating technical schools have not been able to operate at full capacity. The student enrollment rate is decreasing. Along with low enrollment, there is a situation of dropout and low passing rate. This has not yet been able to effectively achieve the return on investment in education and educational achievements. 

Due to the failure to maintain the identity between technical education curricula, teaching and learning, assessment systems, and labor market and employment, there has been little interest in technical education programs for students. The inability to organize student-friendly programs, problems with national and international recognition of learned skills and certificates, failure to open learning paths for high efficiency, and failure to significantly improve the quality of training have reduced student attraction. 

Despite the increasing trend of youth going abroad, the fact that youth enrollment in technical education and training is decreasing is being discussed. However, the main reason for this is the failure of the operating educational institutions to provide the expected quality. Unless education can be made quality according to market demand and international standards, it is not possible to attract youth to this sector and connect the produced human resources to decent employment. Therefore, the emphasis now seems to be not only on 'access' but also on 'quality'. 

Standardization and accreditation is the process of providing official recognition to an educational institution or educational program by evaluating whether it meets the minimum standards set nationally or internationally. In this, the educational institution is ranked on the basis of managerial efficiency, physical and educational infrastructure, human resources, teaching-learning process, and outcome-oriented indicators such as student success, skill acquisition, and employment or entry into higher education. This process is not only a formality but also a means of measuring the actual condition and quality of the institution. 

It increases the credibility of the manpower produced in the labor market and also provides a solid basis for students, parents, and investors to select the right institution. The Government of Nepal has approved the ‘Standardization and Accreditation Regulations-2081’ with the objective of ensuring the quality of technical schools. Its detailed implementation manual-2082 has been approved and implemented. This system has set seven main criteria for measuring the quality of technical schools. These criteria include indicators and standards related to good governance and management, physical and learning resources, human resources, training and learning, market coordination and sustainability, student support services, and research and development.

To measure these criteria impartially and objectively, 73 indicators with a total weightage of 300 have been developed. To further clarify each indicator, all 300 sub-indicators are developed and measured on five levels from zero to one. While evaluating educational institutions according to the specified indicators and sub-indicators, the resources available in the educational institution, the state of resource mobilization, procedural improvements, academic and other achievements achieved, and its long-term impact are also studied. The system prepared in this way has made arrangements to measure the quality of the institution by bringing not only the physical infrastructure of the institution, but also the educational environment and employment conditions under strict scrutiny.

For educational institutions, participating in the quality assurance and accreditation process is not just about obtaining a certificate, but also a golden opportunity to establish the institution at the national and international level. Generally, accreditation is seen only in terms of standards or 'compliance' set by regulatory bodies, but that is not its main purpose. It is a matter of relevance of the program and trust in the program and institution. In the real sense, quality assurance is the act of making the student's investment and time worthwhile. It is like a certificate of Nepal Quality awarded to quality goods. It guides the institutions participating in the accreditation process to identify their weaknesses and focus their investment on areas of improvement.