Govt ropes in Microsoft, Nasscom Foundation for digital skilling of ITI students

The programme will benefit nearly 1,20,000 students in around 3,000 ITIs across India.

Nearly 1,20,000 students in around 3,000 ITIs pan-India will benefit from this digitised e-learning module via the Bharatskills portal

The usage of Bharatskills learning platform has increased multifold from around 90,000 users in March 2020 to more than 1.66 billion users having accessed the portal as on date

DGT in the last two years, collaborated with many digital industry front liners like IBM India Pvt Ltd, SAP India, Cisco Systems India Pvt Ltd, Accenture Solutions and Quest Alliance, Adobe, SSC-Nasscom etc to enable the students to become industry ready. 

The Directorate General of Training (DGT), attached to the ministry of skill development ans entrepreneurship (MSDE) is responsible for implementing long term institutional training to the youth through its extensive network of about 15,000 training institutes (ITIs) and 33 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs). DGT plays a key role in the execution of vocational training schemes and in making ‘Skill India’ dream become a reality.

DGT launched the online learning platform called Bharatskills (https://bharatskills.gov.in) in October 2019, for providing easy access for the trainees and trainers of the ITI ecosystem, to access updated curriculums and course content of all courses under the Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS), Question Banks, mock/practice papers, learning videos, etc, hence enabling anytime, anywhere learning outside the classrooms. This platform also provides access to a centralised, scalable ecosystem through its industrial partners for the students and teachers who can now learn the newer IR 4.0 skills to meet the demands of the industry.

“Empowering the next generation of learners with industry relevant digital skills is critical as we move towards building economic resilience. The last few months have accelerated the need for upskilling and has shown clearly that the future of learning will be supported by technology. Our partnership with DGT and Nasscom Foundation is built on this foundation of equipping the learners of today with the skills required to thrive in the jobs of tomorrow,” AnantMaheshwari, president, Microsoft India, said.

Microsoft has facilitated access to free content available on Microsoft Learn platform for more than 2.4 million students in the ITI ecosystem, by linking the Global Skilling Initiative (GSI) through the Bharatskills platform. 

Further, it is supporting the digitisation of the entire content of a popular course - ‘Computer Operating and Programming Assistant’ (COPA) through the Nasscom Foundation and also in conducting faculty development programmes to build capacities of the trainers/faculties in the NSTIs and ITIs on the newly developed digitised blended content and futuristic skills.