Even as the pandemic wreaked havoc in the country, about 3.40 lakh engineering students, graduates and employees working in IT and non-IT companies decided to acquire new IT skills. They joined the FutureSkills Prime, an IT skilling platform launched by the Nasscom seven months ago, that offers various certifications to individual users.

With lockdown restrictions forcing skilling firms to halt physical classes, the online courses offered by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) have come in handy. “Out of the 3.40 lakh candidates that enrolled on the platform, about 50,000 have completed at least one course and received certificates,” Kirti Seth, Co-Architect and Head of FutureSkills Prime, told BusinessLine .

“They can get government-approved certifications at a very low cost. You can get assessed for various fundamental software tools and programming and get certificates,” she said.

Subscriptions to firms

While the FutureSkills Prime is targetted at individual users, the FutureSkills platform offers subscriptions to companies. The business-to-business arm has about five lakh enrolments.

The platform offers a wide variety of IT skills such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Blockchain, cyber security, Big Data Analytics and User Interface/User Experience. “At present we are offering bulk of the skills for free on the business-to-consumer platform. They may soon become paid courses,” she said.

The top picks among the courses are deep tech courses such as AI, ML, Blockchain and Big Data Analytics. Nasscom estimates that the talent employed in these ‘future skills’ roles are growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16-20 per cent, whereas the demand for these roles is growing at a CAGR of 19-23 per cent.

The country currently employs 1.2-1.3 million future skills talent at the entry level. In a recent report, it pointed out that future skills talent growth will be impacted in the short term owing to Covid-19. As the economy recovers, talent growth is expected to rebound and reach 3.5-3.7 million in 2024. Commenting the demand-supply gap in the availability of skilled people in the niche areas, Kirti Seth said the ecosystem needed to come into play.

Platform scope to be extended

In order to reach out to more number of candidates, the Nasscom’s initiative is going to rope in industry associations and professional organisations. “It will be easier for us to reach much larger audience and hasten the process of creating a bigger pool of people with future skills. We are getting into collaborations with CIOs’ association, women’s groups and non-IT companies to encourage their members and employees to use the platform,” she said.

The current rate of production of people with digital skills is very slow. Of the 80 lakh graduates that the country produced in 2019-20, only 45,000-50,000 are trained in digital skills. “The colleges should allow the students to complete some courses to get credits. We have already signed up with 10 engineering colleges,” she said.

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