30 SIICs to create industry-ready workforce: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

The minister also highlighted how technology in India has served as a unifier, being inclusive in connecting the people with the government and its welfare measures

The upcoming 30 Skill India International Centres (SIICs) are going to create an ‘industry-ready, country-specific-ready’ workforce to meet the requirements across various countries, said minister of state for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar at the US- India Strategic Partnership Forum reception on Thursday.  

In response to a question on the role of SIICs in exporting skilled workers to the world at a time when countries are trying to retain their workforce, the minister said the scale of requirement for professionals from India was quite huge across diverse sectors, such as hospitality, education, medicine, and technology. IISCs, he said, were going to act as a pipeline for creating country-ready skilled workers, offering counselling, training, and post-placement support. 

“Candidates will be able to skill themselves for country-specific job roles according to their needs. Recently, Japan took in 2,000 skilled professionals from India, and they were not necessarily in the tech sectors. For example, they recruited skilled professionals for agriculture as well. Each of these 30 skill centres might be covering a couple of nations,” he added.

Besides, the minister highlighted the steps being taken to closely integrate higher education and industry to create a skilled and employable workforce for emerging technologies and the shift that is being brought into the pedagogy to achieve this. 

“Recently, the whole curriculum of semiconductor engineering was changed in accordance to the industry requirements at all levels of semicon education. This shows that efforts are underway to create an employable workforce rather than just accumulating certificates and New Education Policy is playing a pivotal role in shaping it,” he said. 

The minister added that the technology in India had played the role of a unifier and had been very inclusive in integrating the people with the government and its welfare measures. This ensures that the benefits of technology are reaped by people not only in metropolitan areas but also in the remote parts of the country, he added.