Education Ministry, AICTE & Microsoft partner to equip Indian students with digital skills

In an ongoing effort to empower students to be future-ready, the Ministry of Education, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Microsoft on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to equip students with skills and exposure to new technologies in the country. 

This collaboration is aimed at creating skilling and job readiness for students and educators associated with AICTE and its partner institutions through a wide array of learning paths, technical and role-based certifications and experiences in areas including AI, Cloud, data science, data analytics, and security. 

"In the time of digitisation, new ideas, new innovations and new creativity, these technology companies’ partnerships with the education family (Shikshaa Parivar) are going to create new standards and benchmarks not only for our Indian students but with their knowledge and capacity, it will go beyond," Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, said in a statement. 

Under the MoU, the tech giant will incorporate Microsoft Learn, the company’s centralised training and skilling platform to complement AICTE’s curriculum and offer students hands-on experience with Microsoft technologies. 

Microsoft will also provide students’ exposure to the Azure Developer Community in India for industry insights and mentorship. 

"We are focused on creating opportunities for our students in the realm of new technologies so they can be empowered when entering the workforce," said T. G. Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE. 

The Future Ready Talent Programme will also be offered for skilling students and virtual mentorship on technology projects to strengthen their competencies. 

"Our collaboration with AICTE is an extension of our commitment to empower students and educators with skills, training and experiences needed to navigate today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape," said Venkat Krishnan, Executive Director, Public Sector, Education and Healthcare, Microsoft India. 

In June, Microsoft signed a MoU with the Directorate General of Training (DGT), Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), to train students and educators at government-led Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and National Skills Training Institutions (NSTIs). As part of this collaboration, Microsoft will offer a wide range of courses, including training in AI, cloud computing, web development and cybersecurity skills for nearly 6000 students and 200 faculty members. 

To be sure, MSDE also collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) India in August to offer free online programmes to equip students with essential skills in cutting-edge technologies. The programmes predominantly empower students in areas like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing and Data Annotation through the Directorate General of Training’s Bharat Skills Platform. 

The company said that the shortlisted educational institutions will receive a cloud computing curriculum of AWS that will prepare the students for certification and significant roles in cloud technology. The initiative is expected to enhance students’ skills from Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs) in India.