AICTE to offer free technical courses to over 1 cr youngsters

Creating employment opportunities in India for its people has become the primary focus of government agencies. From creating necessary ecosystems to nurture emerging start-ups to launching necessary skill training courses, the idea of forming a self-reliant workforce has become a priority at the grassroot levels.

Along with increasing literacy rate and imparting quality education, skill training for technical education has the potential to set up a vast sea of entrepreneurs. The vision being, making India one of the largest manufacturing hubs in the world in the next decade or so. Initiatives such as the Atmanirbhar Bharat or Self-reliant India, is believed to make skill development the backbone of the country.

Keeping in mind the need to expand wireless and communication allied technologies here, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is set to launch a platform that would impart skill training on subjects such as wireless power, broadband 5G, digital signage, robots and drone technologies, and many more.

AICTE Chief Coordinating Officer Buddha Chandrasekhar believes that while higher education institutions are supporting and promoting incubators and incubation centres, the talent to grasp technical skills may also lie within the school children, located in the remote corners of India. Speaking to The Hans India, the CCO explained that education and skilling are two different concepts, and that early introduction to technical skill training may create better, diversified entrepreneurs.

India is leading its way in creating a holistic start-up ecosystem since there has been an increasing number of recognised start-ups from 726 in 2016-17 to 65,861 as on March 14. With this, the need of the hour relies on making the workforce self-reliant, i.e. enabling them to prepare for future technologies that may overtake the need of a physical labour force in certain industrial segments.

AICTE, a statutory body, has onboarded 46,000 companies who will provide training to interested candidates and fully empower them to attract employers based on the merits of their technical skills. In 2020, P.M Modi had launched Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative in 2020 and with that announced the Special economic and comprehensive package of INR 20 lakh crores - equivalent to 10 percent of India's GDP.,

Developing countries such as India are now aiming to achieve Digital 4.0, an initiative to bridge the gap between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. It encompasses the fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies. To achieve the milestone of Digital 4.0, skill training on data, communication, and interconnectivity will be undertaken by AICTE through its programme namely, "ABCDEFHI".

According to AICTE's Chandrasekhar, creating an atmosphere of self-reliance or Atmanirbhar Bharat now will not just lie with the central government, but will also be shared by state governments, local bodies, private players and MSMEs. By providing short-term technical courses for free of cost, AICTE says that early exposure to emerging technologies will give independence to the younger generation to pursue a futuristic path of their own. As India may increase in creating quality workforce and manufacturing units, the long-term intention of the apex body remains to make India a 100 percent indigenous industrial hub within the next 15 years.