Educational success is the key determinant for a good future but the majority of the Indian workforce is not job ready when they graduate. This is recognised by the National Skill Development Corporation as an impediment to economic progress.

With the aim of educating 400 million people by 2020, Skill India has a mammoth task ahead achieving PM Modi’s dream of India becoming, “The world’s largest provider of skilled workforce for the world”.

There is however an issue that needs attention because, according to a report in The Economic Times, of the annual 1.5 million engineering students who achieve a qualification, 80% are unemployable. This calls for an urgent change in the way that this and many other subjects are taught.

Encouragingly in a growing number of cases, outmoded teaching practices are being replaced by online cloud hosted learning. This has many advantages, for example a whole class of engineering students can simultaneously work on a virtual model of an engine and see it in all the detail they need, to fully understand it. Its operation can be simulated so that students can use VR headsets to see and be inside the engine as it is working. This is impossible in real-life and takes learning experience to a new level.

With the roll-out of internet to many more areas of the country, anyone including rural populations, can benefit from distance learning in any language. By facilitating access to leading educators and subject matter experts equipped with the most advanced technology, education has been revolutionised in the digital age.

Training for work in hazardous environments and project based learning takes the same approach by creating virtual worlds where people can experience potentially dangerous activities without any risk to themselves or others. Setting up a power station, a retail store or a fully detailed factory in the virtual world means people can learn processes and practice safely, as many times as they need to while gaining the confidence and the experience required to operate in the real world.

Students in different locations can work in teams on projects at a distance from their place of education to effectively take lessons away and work on that aero engine, or anyother assignment, at home. This means they can develop their studies and overcome weaknesses in the same professional software environment that they use at school, college or work. Lessons are compelling too, because just like gaming, students achieve instant feedback and rewards while moving up to the next level.

Employers seek to discover graduates with skills and knowledge that make them useful from day one. Using the same cloud based technologies deployed by the world’s most innovative companies, students can gain qualifications that make them more employable.

Developing digital content is educational itself and the creation of cloud based virtual worlds bring together diverse Skill India disciplines and communities. Each of these learns about the others as ideas merge through collaboration.

In the world of work interdisciplinary, cooperation is highly valued as a spur to innovation and productivity. By engaging with online cloud hosted education, students work together and benefit from technology to explore, nurture and market their talents. This helps them fill the skills gap, become valuable employees, and go on to make a genuine contribution to India’s future social and economic success.