Youth to get equipped for the future with NASSCOM Future Skills

“The dearth of job isn’t the issue but the lack of the skill is. With rapid technological enhancement existing job roles will go down by 75 million. However, 130 million new jobs will be created in 8 major technology sectors.” said Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of  the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) Development in a higher education summit organised by IT-ITES Sector Skill Council NASSCOM, for the very first time in collaboration with MHRD. The main objective of the summit was to bring awareness about future skills among the non-engineering colleges that offer courses like B.A, B.Com, and B.Sc.

The higher education summit- “Get equipped for the future”, witnessed a gathering of 300+ audience and was graced by the presence of many dignitaries and important stakeholders including Mr Vedula L V S S Subba Rao, Senior Economic Advisor, MHRD, Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of  the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) Development of the Telangana Government. 

The summit was initiated by welcoming the guests and with the lighting of the digital lamp by Mr Vedula L V S S Subba Rao, Senior Economic Advisor, MHRD and Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of  the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) Development. Dr Sandhya Chintala, Executive Director, Sector Skills Council (SSC), NASSCOM, welcomed the guests. Dr Sandhya explained the gathering about the importance and agenda of the summit. She invited all the industry experts to share their thoughts on the occasion.

Pace setting for higher education on emerging technologies by Mr Vedula L V S S Subba Rao, Senior Economic Advisor, MHRD

Mr Vedula L V S S Subba Rao, Senior Economic Advisor, MHRD delivered the inaugural speech where he appropriately emphasized the need for industry-driven education. He also added that the need of the hour is to ensure that the higher education sector of the country is not left behind in skilling for the future. He praised the initiative by MHRD and NASSCOM and said that the initiative would create an employable workforce for current and future requirements.  He talked about the 3 strategies by MHRD to meet the requirements of the industries known as add on strategy, embedded strategy and creating optional papers strategy. Under the strategies, students would have 6 month add on certification courses, degree embedded courses and optional subjects to choose from. He also said that India is at demographic advantage and steps can be taken to convert it into demographic dividend. 

Keynote address by guest of honour Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of  the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) Development

In his enlightening speech, Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of  the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) Development, emphasized the need for industry-ready youth with the right technical and technological knowledge. Referring to the outcome of two major survey reports from World Economic Forum and Mercer he explained how the technological enhancement is going to affect the job in various sectors and how new jobs are awaiting for the youth in the 8 major job sectors which are AI and ML Specialist, Big data Specialists, Process Automation Experts , Data Security Analyst, User Experience, Human and Machine Interaction Designers, Robotic Engineers and Blockchain Specialists. He urged the youth to learn new skills as industries are integrated and one skill is not going to be enough to be employable. He emphasized how important it is to be equipped with tech-based skills along with specializing in one’s own field. He said that skilling in the new age technologies would enable the students to have global mobility. 

Presentation on the importance of blending learning by Mr Venkatraman Umakanth, Customer Success Lead, SSC NASSCOM

A presentation was given on the importance of blended learning in the current digital ecosystem by Mr Venkatraman Umakanth, Customer Success Lead, SSC NASSCOM. Where he explained the challenges in skilling that the country is currently witnessing along with the opportunities that the industry has. During his presentation, Mr Venkatraman said that the Future Skills platform by NASSCOM is the right place for students to start upskilling themselves as it is the  first of its kind model in India to map online content to industry defined standards. 

Presentation by Dr Sandhya Chintala, Executive Director, Sector Skills Council(SSC), NASSCOM on academic institutions partnership

During her presentation on skilling for employability on current and emerging technology opportunities, Dr Sandhya Chintala, Executive Director, Sector Skills Council(SSC), NASSCOM, said Digital literacy and IT-led growth is integral to a country like India which aims to be the global IT leader in the fourth industrial revolution. She also said that emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, data analytics, big data, cybersecurity, cloud computing, robotic process automation (RPA) and mobile technology space are the future skills for making students employable. 

Panel discussion on ‘Feasibility and Sustainability of current and emerging tech in Indian States’

After Dr Sandhya’s presentation, an insightful panel discussion on ‘Feasibility and Sustainability of current & emerging tech in Indian States’ was held by Higher Education Commissioners of four different states. The panelists were Mr Navin Mittal, Commissioner, Department of Collegiate and Technical Education, Telangana, Mr Anirudh Sravan, Commissioner, Department of Collegiate Education, Karnataka, Mr G Mathew Srirangam, Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education, Mr Vinoth, DDU-GKY project, Tamil Nadu. The panel which was moderated by Mr Navin Mittal, discussed about various skill initiatives of the states they were representing. The panelists also shared their views on how to take those initiatives forward. The panelists interacted with the audience and answered their queries on different areas of skill development. 

Pulse check and a walk through of NASSCOM Future Skills

Pulse Check, a hi-energy session was moderated by Ms Swati Saini. The session focused on India’s Skilling journey and kept the 300+ audience hooked. The audience were made aware about some crucial facts and figures of India in the skill development and higher education sector. To note a few, audience came to know that with 35K colleges, 600 universities India have the largest presence in higher education globally.

Related article: FutureSkills: A digital initiative by NASSCOM to upskill technology professionals https://nationalskillsnetwork.in/futureskills-a-digital-initiative-by-nasscom-to-upskill-technology-professionals/

In an attempt to familiarise the audience with Future Skills, Sakshi Madaan then took the gathering on a walk-through of the NASSCOM Future Skills portal where she briefed about the platform and all the features associated with the portal.

According to the industry experts, around 90% of our educated population eligible for jobs are not digitally empowered. To bridge the gap and bring digital literacy among youth, experts are aiming to reskill professionals through the future program of NASSCOM. 

The one-day seminar was concluded with a session on how to join the skilling movement after a question and answer session on future skill requirements and the government initiatives to bridge the skill gap.