The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 anchors the shift to competency-based education and training, calling for curricula, teaching and examinations to be redesigned from content- and fact-based learning to competency-oriented, application-based learning. This article analyses how the competency-based approach is prescribed, interpreted and enacted in Indian formal Vocational Education and Training (VET) and especially at Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) using the programme “Fashion Design and Technology” as a case study. Drawing on curriculum theory distinguishing between prescribed, adopted and enacted curricula, the study combines qualitative document analysis of the former content-driven and the current competency-based national curricula with guided group interviews involving 12 ITI teachers in Delhi. The curriculum comparison shows a shift towards outcome orientation in the current curriculum, including explicit learning outcomes, alignment with the National Skills Qualification Framework, a more elaborated assessment regime and mandatory pedagogical qualifications of teachers, while curricular flexibility and teachers’ opportunities for autonomous adaptation remain limited. Interview findings indicate that teachers broadly implement the new curriculum and strongly emphasise employability, yet competency-based principles are only partially realised due to teacher-centred pedagogy, constrained work-based learning and limited scope for learner autonomy. Structural and sociocultural factors, including weak industry cooperation and gendered barriers to labour-market entry in a predominantly female programme, further impede implementation. The study concludes that advancing competency-based VET in India, as set out in the NEP 2020, requires stronger teacher professional development, more robust and equitable workplace learning arrangements and carefully calibrated flexibility within standardised curricula.