Education, vocational training and lifelong learning are the central pillars of employability, employment of workers and sustainable enterprise development, which contribute in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty. Skills development, crucial for stimulating a sustainable development process, can make a significant contribution for facilitating the transition of workers from the informal sectors to the formal economy.
The principles and values of decent work provide guidance for the design and delivery of skills development and are an effective way of managing socially just transitions.
The ballpark figure of skilling 500 million Indians by 2022 includes skill development of 150 million by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC); 100 million by the Ministry of Labor; 50 million by MHRD and the rest 230 million by 21 ministries, departments and various other organisations.
The Indian IT/ ITES industry has been one of the great success stories of modern India. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has put in place many schemes for capacity building and development of skills in IT and Electronics and the schemes on Capacity Building and Skill Development are primarily being implemented by NIELIT.
National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, or NIELIT as it is popularly known, is doing lot work for proliferation of e-Literacy among the masses and capacity building in the area of skill development in IT and Electronics. NIELIT has wide presence in the country, specially in the rural areas, through a network of 31 centres. NIELIT offers courses in the formal and the non-formal sectors of education, and is one of the national examination bodies which accredit training institutions for the conduct of courses in the non-formal sector.
Besides a network of own centres, NIELIT is well represented in the country through its approximately 900 strong network of accredited training partners and about 5000+ CCC/BCC facilitation centres. It is also undertaking the implementation of many Government projects, besides the conduct of recruitment examinations on behalf of DeitY and its attached offices like STQC Dte, CeRT-IN, NIC etc.
NIELIT has not only created an institutionalised model for the conduct of nation-wide examinations, both in the Online and the conventional modes, but has also made deep inroads to take skill development initiatives to the nook and corner of the country through synergy with other departments.
In the recent past, NIELIT has diversified by introducing courses in new technologies such as Electronic System design and Manufacturing (ESDM), Geographical Information System (GIS), Cyber Security, IPR, Cloud Computing, e-Governance etc. Through the successful implementation of the PPP model, it has further extended its reach and the number of accredited training partners has increased from 500 to 850 within a span of just one year.
To facilitate the model of making one person in every Indian family e-literate, NIELIT has identified more than 5000 facilitation centres, spread across the country, for training on CCC/BCC courses which equips a person to use a computer to undertake e-Governance transactions and other basic activities, like sending/receiving e-mails, browsing the internet, etc. The unique initiative of reinforcing existing NIELIT courses with Soft skilland Foreign language components have also added tremendous value, resulting in an increase in the employability of NIELIT qualifiers.
Looking to the outreach of CSCs (Common Service Centre), which have got presence throughout the country, one out of six villages, we have tied up with CSC-SPV for training of VLE (Village Level Entrepreneur) for training in our Digital Literacy course so that he/she can further take up training of other citizens in the village. Efforts are also being made for online assessment in the local language.
The recently launched Digital India’s mission aims to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Envisaged by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Digital India shall be implemented in phases from the current year till 2018. Digital India is transformational in nature and is aimed at ensuring that Government services are available to citizens electronically. It would also bring in public accountability through mandated electronic delivery of government services.
The programme also envisions providing a Rradle-to-gravedigital identity that is unique, lifelong and online. As Skill Development is one of the important pillars out of the nine pillars of Digital india NIELIT has been entrusted to conduct examinations of 10 Lakh candidates in 18 months for Digital Literacy programs.
By Dr. Ashwini Kumar Sharma, MD, National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT)