Govt taps Cisco, Accenture for skilling ITI students
14 Jun 2019
The Directorate General of Training has joined hands with technology majors Cisco and Accenture to set up a future-ready employability skilling programme for students of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the country.
Nearly 15,00,000 students across all the ITIs in India can access the digital learning module via the Bharat Skills portal.
Along with the implementation partner Quest Alliance, this programme will equip students enrolled in ITIs across India with skills for the digital economy over the next two years.
The organisations have entered into an agreement with the Directorate General of Training (DGT) within the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship to roll out a comprehensive future ready employability skilling programme for ITI students.
The MoU was signed in the presence of K P Krishnan, secretary, MSDE, by DGT director general Rajesh Aggarwal, Harish Krishnan, managing director, public affairs and strategic engagements, Cisco India and SAARC, Kshitija Krishnaswamy, director, corporate citizenship, Accenture in India and Aakash Sethi, CEO, Quest Alliance.
The program includes tailor-made curriculum with modules for digital literacy, career readiness, employability skills and advanced technology skills such as data analytics, and a blended learning model enabled by a combination of online self-learning via the Bharat Skills portal and in-classroom modules.
The initial phase of the in-classroom training programme is being rolled out across 227 ITIs in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar and Assam, targeting more than 1,00,000 youth. The in-classroom programme will deliver more than 240 hours of training to impart critical 21st century skills, including digital literacy and digital fluency skills; workplace readiness skills including creative problem solving and use of data in decision making; and career management skills, including the cultivation of a growth mindset and the ability to identify and plan careers.
The online module is optimized for mobile phones to enable on the-go self-learning, and the toolkit also includes train the trainer resources.
Cisco will also provide access to Networking Academy courses directly to ITI students across the country. DGT and Cisco have decided to work together for the purpose of expanding digital skills into ITI educational system across India.
"It is imperative that we as a nation adapt ourselves to the new age technology and skills which are market relevant today. Our ITI ecosystem has been one of the most outcome based network for skill development and this partnership today is a step further in enabling and empowering our industrial institutes with the latest in digital skilling," secretary, ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship KP Krishnan said.
Over the past year, DGT has collaborated with IBM, Adobe India, Microsoft and SAP to digitally revolutionise the vocational training system in India. Earlier in this year Bharat skills (https://bharatskills.gov.in), a self-learning seamless platform for ITI students and teachers, a central repository of trade relevant study materials, video tutorials, question bank, mock test was launched. It gives the trainees an ability to learn from any location 24/7.