'India's Youth Holds Tremendous Potential, Crucial to Equip Youth with Necessary Skills': Dharmendra Pradhan

The Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that digitally skilled youth can unleash technology's entrepreneurial potential and wealth creation for society.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan with others.

New Delhi: The Union Minister of Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan chaired the signing of eight MoUs between ministries' agencies and IBM, along with delivering a keynote address during the event. Speaking at the event, Dharmendra Pradhan said that India, with its vast and youthful population, stands at the cusp of tremendous potential. To harness this demographic dividend, it is crucial to equip the youth with the necessary skills to excel in today’s modern workforce. This collaboration marks a significant stride toward our vision of a ‘Skilled India’ and in scaling up digital skills training and skill building in emerging technologies using the IBM SkillsBuild platform. He said that these partnerships forged today will go a long way in making our learners harness the true potential of technology, making them future wealth creators and entrepreneurs of society.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), curated courses will be provided to empower youth in India with future-ready skills.  The collaboration will focus on the co-creation of a curriculum for skilling learners across school education, higher education, and vocational skills on emerging technologies like AI (including generative AI), cybersecurity, cloud computing and professional development skills.

IBM’s collaboration with MoE and MSDE spans across three core levels of education:

School Education: IBM will provide access to digital content from IBM SkillsBuild for high school students, teachers, and trainers on cutting-edge skills in schools identified by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS). This program will be offered online, via webinars and in-person workshops conducted by IBM's CSR implementation partners

In addition, IBM will refresh CBSE's AI curriculum for Grades 11 and 12 and develop a cyber skilling and blockchain curriculum for high school students to be hosted on IBM SkillsBuild.

Higher Education: IBM, through its CSR implementation partners, will work closely with the Department of Higher Education, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT), National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training & Research (NITTTR), Chandigarh and state skilling missions to onboard affiliated students and faculty to IBM SkillsBuild and provide them access to digital content, experiential learning, and fresh skills enabling them to take on technical careers.

Vocational Skills: IBM will continue its central partnership with MSDE and work closely with the Directorate General of Training (DGT) and respective state vocational education and skilling departments to onboard, job seekers, including long-term unemployed, and school dropouts to IBM SkillsBuild and enable them to gain the technical and professional skills required to re-enter the workforce.