Centre asks states to expand new age courses in training centres

Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said, "The need of the hour is to restructure the current academic framework of ITIs to offer more robust technical programs in new technology areas of Industrial Revolution 4.0 like Data Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Blockchain etc".

The Centre has asked states to further expand the new-age courses across their respective training centres to skill and upskill the youth, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said on Friday. "The aim is to keep in pace with the changing digital technology age towards building 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' by meeting the local demand for skilled workforce in the state and also to increase the footprints of Indian workers in national and international markets," the ministry said.

Directorate General of Training (DGT) -- under the ministry, engaged in development and coordination of vocational training across the country -- will provide all possible technical support to the states for the formulation of new proposals and training of instructors/trainers for such new-age courses. The DGT has already introduced 13 National Skills Qualification Framework compliant new-age courses that include data analysts and scientists, technician mechatronics, smart agriculture, cloud computing, process automation experts, user experience and human-machine interaction designers, blockchain specialists, etc.

The duration of these training courses varies from 6 months to 2 years. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said, "The need of the hour is to restructure the current academic framework of ITIs to offer more robust technical programs in new technology areas of Industrial Revolution 4.0 like Data Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Blockchain etc".