AICTE onboards 205 companies, 9 lakh students for digital skilling programme

Less than a week after launching the Digital Skilling initiative, the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has successfully enrolled over 9 lakh students to train them for futuristic technologies and connect them with industry segments that are utilising both virtual space and real-time.

Speaking with The Hans India exclusively, AICTE Chief Coordinating officer, Buddha Chandrasekhar said that since the launch of the Digital Skilling programme, 205 companies have been onboarded to provide internship and/or apprenticeship opportunities to interested candidates in segments such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain Technology, and similar emerging fields.

Since the launch of the portal, AICTE has also enrolled around 9.1 lakh students in just the last 6 days. The statutory technical body is now targeting to enrol 1 crore students in the next 6 months. According to Chandrasekhar, the response on the one-of-its-kind platform has been positive from both students as well as different industries.

The CCO also noted that they have received requests received from agriculture and law students to add emerging areas from their respective fields. Sharing his thoughts on the response received, Dr Buddha Chandrashekar, Chief Coordinating Officer, AICTE, has said, "Digital skills are augmenting at an unprecedented speed and students across levels need this fuel for a long career mileage. Supply-demand skill gap rate comes to 21.1% where reskilling becomes the need of the hour. I firmly believe that the Nation education policy 2020 is a game-changer to make India a frontline digital economy to produce millions of top skilled talents. I am indebted to corporates and EdTech who under the digital skilling initiative are creating opportunities to empower 1 crore digital workforce in the next 6 months."

On the most preferred areas for digital skilling, AICTE has said that topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Block chain, Internet of Things (IOT), Automobile & Automobile Components, Health Tech, Data Analysis (Analytics, Data Science, Real Time Analytics, Data Architecture) have gained maximum attention of the interested applicants.

On June 6, 2022, AICTE launched a programme called Digital Skilling, which aims to train aspirants in futuristic technologies. This would include providing training modules to students, as well connect them with internships and apprenticeship opportunities. AICTE has said that they have seen maximum students' participation from states such as Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The portal was launched by Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan. The portal has also onboarded companies such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, IDS, IBM and so on, who would train interested candidates for topics such as blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and other allied emerging technologies.