Need to upskill 15-20 crore white-collar workers: Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Futuristic technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, and cloud computing in the spotlight at this first-of-its-kind collaboration across ministries, regulatory and industry bodies

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) today launched a Digital Skilling program in emerging and future technologies, in the presence of Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan. The digital skilling initiative will focus on skilling, reskilling and upskilling students via internships, apprenticeships, and employment to 1 crore students in the Emerging Technologies.

Major companies participating in this initiative include Microsoft, AWS, AI for India, EduSkill, GitHub, Miles Education, Google, VM Ware, SmartBridge, MyTat, Amar`11a Raja, IDS Inc., IBM, Adobe, Salesforce, Ziegler, Aerospace, Alteryx, Cellonix, NASSCOM, GMR, RedHat, Pi-Square and NIPUNA.

Speaking at the launch, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education said, "Youngsters adapt technology quickly because it is in their nature. India didn’t have PPE kits at the beginning of the pandemic, and we rose up to the challenge and manufactured them. India didn’t have vaccines, but we not only vaccinated our own populations but provided vaccines to emerging economies. Today, we need to reskill and upskill at least 15-20 crore, white-collar workers, out of the 40 crore workforce in India. Today, every facet of life is connected to technology and digitization. All purchasing, ordering, and payment happen online now. We have to create a mass movement of reskilling in India."

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State, MSDE, said, “The landscape of opportunities post-COVID has changed and digitization has increased. The result today is that no facet of the Indian or global economy is untouched by digitization. We are seeing the rise of tech-led Indian unicorns. Digitization requires talent and there’s a big deficit in what the world requires and what’s available. Newer technologies are required by world enterprises. India has a huge opportunity to welcome a trillion-dollar digital economy, for which we require skilled talent in new areas.”

Dharmendra Pradhan urged edu-tech creators to create learning material in Indian languages, he said, “All Indian languages are our national languages. The universe of edu-tech will expand when connected to language.”

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