Focussed on providing an ecosystem to ‘supply the skilling needs of citizens’, Skill India aims at inclusive growth especially for those at the bottom of the pyramid (approximately 800 million citizens). This makes the government’s initiative crucial, not only for individual advancement and attainment but also to close the gaps across all sectors of the Indian economy that are restricting national progress.  ET Auto from Economic Times reported that the gaps are comparatively wider in the automobile industry and there is an estimated need of an additional 4 million skilled workers.

Skill India is a crucial step to close gaps across various sectors of Indian economy Click To Tweet

In a concerted drive to up-skill, our brightest young citizens, our ongoing partnerships with more than 50 universities in 20 states, thousands of students have access to and can learn the most advanced product development technology. Working, remotely in cloud-hosted systems, students have access to the 3D design and simulation systems that they will use when they reach employment. This experience makes them more valuable to employers because when they do start work, they will hit the ground running.

Across the country, many teachers have limited access to the best educational resources, upcoming technologies, and their teaching is consequently hampered. Part of our work is to provide faculty development to educators themselves. This is done through hands-on courses where groups of around 25 teachers and professors work with subject, industry and technology experts. Here they are trained using the same 3D design and simulation applications deployed by leading automotive manufacturers.

In these Faculty Development Programs, upcoming technologies and industry trends are covered, so teachers return to their posts in possession of the latest thinking in e.g. additive manufacturing, 3d printing, collaborative innovation, 3D design, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, machine learning and new ways to manufacture, robotics, automation.

Teachers throughout India can now use an intuitive, web-based user interface, to create local or international collaborative project or exam environments. Students can start projects on campus, continue at home, and discuss issues and get answers through online communities or screen-sharing sessions. The cloud based platform ensures that they always have the latest version of their work. During this process, educators can remotely monitor projects, manage idea-maturity and grade results. This transformation is of huge benefit to remote universities that can now offer the best teaching with the most advanced technology. In this context of learning by doing, multi-disciplinary collaboration becomes smooth, dynamic and natural among teachers, researchers, students and industry mentors.

The improved employment choices that this training leads to is attracting many more students to attend universities in outlying parts of the country. Some of our programs are also helping young students to learn vocational skills and craftsmanship through innovative and remote learning approaches. These programs would help in bridging the demand-supply gap for skilled technicians, skilled workers specifically trained on topics related to automotive field.

Much of this resource is provided, in addition to their regular work, by Dassault Systèmes R&D personnel at 3DPLM Software. Among them have been discovered some talented communicators and teachers whose abilities would have remained unknown if not for their participation in this Skills India initiative.

Discover how #SkillIndia aims to supply the skilling needs of citizens. Click To Tweet

Over last 6 years we have been conducting national level design competition for students. These design competitions provide platform to the students to showcase their innovative ideas / designs and simulate digitally how these ideas would deliver value. The discovery of previously hidden abilities in students is also very gratifying. Among entries, to the annual student design innovation competition that we have run for the past six years, some real talent has emerged. With a judging panel drawn from automotive industry leaders, the best competitors have a chance to impress at a very senior level.

These industry-relevant academic programs are set for an extension with more product innovation and virtual reality labs planned to teach design, product optimization, systems engineering, energy reuse, welding, wiring and maintenance to a wider community. Additionally, mobile teaching facilities are providing opportunities to bring advanced technology education resources to the remote locations. Our webinar based lecture sessions are attended by around 1000+ students from all parts of the country, who attend our weekly online webinars from their college campuses. New to India, our technical, management and R&D internship programs are very popular with students and employers who have the chance to discover and learn from each other during placements of up to 6-months duration.

Connecting academia with industry through innovation and technology is hugely rewarding and has created an ecosystem that profits everybody. Within this framework teaching and learning have been revolutionized, job prospects are enhanced and we hope the Indian skills gap be narrowed for the widest social and economic benefit.