Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) unveiled the digital version of the Employability Skills Curriculum for students enrolled in India’s Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) on April 11th, 2023, at the Future Skills Forum in New Delhi.
The Future Skills Forum – is an initiative of the Future Right Skills Network (FRSN) a collaborative effort by QUEST Alliance, Accenture, Cisco, and J.P. Morgan. To help young people acquire critical skills for the future, it brings together government skill training institutions, civil society organisations, industry, and corporate social responsibility partners.
Shri Dharmendra Pradhan discussed the transformative impact of skilling in his speech, highlighting how it could boost employability, shape India’s future, and prepare people to enter the workforce of the 21st century. He stated, “India would have the largest economy in the next quarter of the century when it achieved 100 years of independence.” “We have embraced technology in every aspect of life and created best-in-class products and services, from digital payments to vaccinations. In this age of technology, where the nature of the workplace is changing rapidly, and new disruptive technologies are no longer limited to a small elite, skill development will be the key to unlocking the true potential of our demography,” he added.
He expressed his happiness that industry leaders had joined together to strengthen the skilling ecosystem and to consider how to use new technologies such as AI and IoT to create a future-ready workforce for the betterment of society. The world would benefit from India’s capacity, as Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi stated. He added that National Education Policy (NEP) has created learning opportunities while earning.
The digital lessons include financial and digital literacy modules, diversity and inclusion, career development, goal setting up, and entrepreneurship. These are taken from the upgraded ES curriculum, which the MSDE unveiled in September 2022.
These modules will be available to more than 2.5 million learners through the Government of India’s Bharat Skills Portal and other platforms.
The curriculum was developed with active industry participation. It contained 12 modules in a bite-sized, gamified format, with each lesson followed by assessments meant to help learners evaluate the depth of their learning. The storytelling approach utilised throughout the modules gives learners relatable examples they may use daily. Using a constructive feedback system ensures that learners receive relevant, timely, and actionable feedback, leading to improved learning outcomes.
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The digital lessons will be essential in introducing innovative pedagogical models such as blended learning in ITI, empowering educators to create and lead 21st-century classrooms.
