Union Minister of Education and Skill Development Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched a Digital Skilling program in emerging and future technologies, in the presence of Minister of State for Skill Development and Information, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar here today. The digital skilling initiative will focus on skilling, reskilling and upskilling students via internships, apprenticeships, and employment to 1 crore students in the Emerging Technologies. This is the first-ever collaboration on a national scale between Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Skill and affiliated NSDCs, Skill India programs (National Educational Alliance for Technology) and AICTE. Over 100+ technology corporate/manufacturing firms have already come on board on this platform to provide free-of-cost emerging technology certifications.

Speaking at the launch, Shri Pradhan said that the world is facing unprecedented  changes and there is  need for skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling. We must make skilling a mass movement, he added. He further said that the Government is functioning as a facilitator in creating workforce for the future as it is the right time to work with a collaborative approach between industry, academia and policy makers. He further said that India has to cater to the workforce requirement of the world and  technology will enable us to do so. The Minister called upon tech companies to synergise technology with all Indian languages.

The Minister highlighted that India has vast potential when it comes to our human capital, especially given the strong demographic dividend. This program is to connect the right candidates with skill trainers and various courses providing expertise on emerging technologies. It includes artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, data analytics, cyber security, and cloud computing. This is one proactive step closer to our 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ vision for India and fulfilling the dream of our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, he added.

Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar spoke about Digital India’s vision to transform lives, create opportunities for the youth and make India a producer of technology products and services. He said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has referred to coming 10 years as India’s tech-ade. He stressed that in the next few years, the world’s digitisation requires more and more talent. Supply chain for digital products is undergoing tectonic changes, India has a huge opportunity in building a trillion dollar digital economy as world looks to India to supply technology, innovation and talent. He stressed that today’s launch is a significant step towards making India’s tech-ade a reality.

As per data from the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI), the contribution of GDP from manufacturing is on the rise, making it imperative to bring in skilling initiatives that meet the diverse demands of industries. AICTE, through this initiative, will create job recruiters and skill trainers in every nook and corner of the country, with active support from the Centre. AICTE will give internship opportunities in technical fields for students from class 7th to Undergraduation through this program 'Digital Skilling’.

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MJPS/AK