By 2020, 64 per cent of India’s population will be in the earning and spending stage. As the world steps big time into industry 4.0, India has a God-sent opportunity to embrace upskilling and become a talent superpower.
Tamil Nadu took the lead in addressing the industry-academia skill gap by establishing and nurturing ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT), a skill development initiative in the information, communication and technology space. The mandate is to support the education ecosystem and build industry relevant talent. The Academy is a public-private partnership with the government at the Centre and at the state along with technology entrepreneurs as stakeholders. The star-studded board consists of industry honchos and policy-makers.
7 Pillar initiative
With the training of teachers and students as the core objective, ICTACT has been working through a seven pillar programme in the areas of faculty development, student skill development, entrepreneurship development, youth empowerment, industry-institute interaction, digital empowerment and research and publications.
In the last 10 years, we have trained over 35,000 faculty members and impacted more than 10 lakh graduating students to obtain industry-relevant skills. We have struck partnerships with global leaders in software to offer training in advanced technology to teachers and students. So excited was NITI Aayog that it mandated ICTACT to set up operations nation-wide, as a result of which we now function from 20 states including all the north-eastern ones.
We are among the largest project implementation partners for various state governments and have set up 50 Entrepreneurship Development Centres in colleges. A high point was the AICTE partnering with ICTACT on various initiatives like being technology partner for a national internship portal, industry partner for placements and skilling partner for the northeastern states.
Various corporate entities have joined hands with ICTACT for their corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects. Companies like Microsoft, Intel, Cognizant, Intellect and Take Solutions have engaged us in implementing their high impact CSR projects in areas of education and training.
These initiatives have made ICTACT the first choice destination for the colleges to make their wards job-ready. The companies in Tamil Nadu and global players who establish their presence here will continue to enjoy the advantage of the talent pool from these institutions for their current and future requirements.
