April 2023, New Delhi: The Honourable Chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Professor T. G. Sitharam has called upon all stakeholders associated with skill development to come together to make India and its education system fully skill-oriented. One of AICTE’s primary goals is to eliminate language barriers and provide technical education to students in their native tongues. For same AICTE has recently launched the AICTE internship portal to provide internships to rural youth. So far 2.7 Cr. registration has been received, 85 colleges enrolled and 75000 companies have shown interest to hire interns through these portals. Promoting online education, AICTE’s Ekumbh platform has received 1.5 lakh downloads across 47 countries. This call would ultimately result in imparting skills to the youth of the country to enable them to land the job of their choice and contribute to the growth of the country.
Inaugurating the Industry 4.0 India Conference (I4IC 2023) organized by Employability. life here today, the AICTE Chairman also emphasized that integration of primary and secondary education with higher education is required in order to make India’s skills initiatives fully comprehensive.
Given the high importance of skills to the economy and society, all partners in skill-rated activities should join hands with the Government and the Skill Development Ministry to ensure that the goals are met, said Professor Sitharam. He also noted that the new National Education Policy stipulates that vocational education must be imparted even below the twelfth standard, the objective being that young people acquire skills for earning a living.
Professor Sitharam also declared that efforts are underway by multiple institutions to ensure that skills are learnt by students in all districts for which online courses are available and necessary facilities are present. He added that with the help of the adoption of various technologies, the Government and different institutions are pushing the agenda of skilling through collaboration and cross-cultured pathways so that skilling and initiatives associated with it reach the intended beneficiaries. The partnership between industry and academia is also essential to make skills pervasive and to meet the demand of the industry, he told the conference.
Dr Manish Malhotra, Co-Founder & Chairman of Employability. life also spoke on the occasion, noting that “the I4IC 2023 conference has provided a platform for stakeholders to come together and discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by Industry 4.0. The insights gained from this conference will be valuable in shaping the future of skills development in India.”
Dr Malhotra also added “The institutional response relating to education in general, and skills in particular, will be critical for India to achieve its target to make India a five trillion economy in the next few years.”
A Special Guest of Honour at I4IC 2023, Professor Duncan Bentley, Vice Chancellor & President of Federation University Australia, described the situation in Australia where the focus is not only on skilling and training but also on re-skilling and retaining so that the needs and requirements of the industry can be comprehensively met. Even PhD students are made to acquire a very high level of skills for specific requirements, stressed Professor Bentley. He also called for further cooperation and intensive partnership between Australia and India, offering a win-win for both countries.
A second Special Guest of Honour, Dr Sandeep Singh Kaura, Advisor to the National Skill Development Corporation, also laid equal emphasis on the imparting of skills, saying that the Government of India has been running various skill-related programmes for all stakeholders in different sectors. In this direction, Dr Kaura added that multiple institutions are deeply involved in skills promotion as per the directives of the Government, the results of which are positive and encouraging.
