Government approves Rs 436 cr to reskill Indian IT professionals

The Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad has approved Rs 436 crore for the expansion of Future Skills initiative.

This expanded digital platform, called Future Skills PRIME (programme for reskilling/ upskilling of IT manpower for employability), is expected to train more than four lakh professionals over the next three years, according to a statement. 

Upon completion of their certification, every learner will get a “skills wallet” and will have an opportunity to get up to Rs. 12,000 from the government as an incentive. 

National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) had launched Future Skills last year to help train employees of its member companies. 

The platform currently offers reskilling and upskilling in 10 emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, blockchain across 70 new job roles and 155 new skills.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT and Nasscom say they have worked together with the IT industry to so far reskill over 200,000 employees using the Future Skills platform.

“In the digital world trained workforce will become India’s biggest competitive advantage. The government is committed to work with the IT Industry and Nasscom to create India Digital Talent Stack that will propel India into a leadership position in the digital world,” Union Minister Prasad said.

By 2030, India will have the largest workforce in the world, with more than 90 million new workers.

The expanded programme will address skill gaps, provide blended programmes with online and classroom training and enable assessment and certification of learners in line with industry needs, the statement said. 

“The common objective we share is to showcase India as the global hub for talent development in emerging technologies as well as globally recognized process structures,” Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, said.