To provide industry-aligned skill development experiences to the students of higher education, Karnataka State Higher Education Council (SHEC) entered into a MoU with the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) on Tuesday.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in presence of Ashwathnarayan C. N., the Minister for Higher Education and IT/BT at Vidhana Soudha. Speaking on the occasion, Narayan told, all universities in the state are covered under this MoU and will benefit more than 5 lakh students pursuing higher education in the government and private institutions every year.

This MoU will allow Skill development courses available on the "Future Skills Prime" platform of NASSCOM to be available to all the students and faculty members of Higher Education Institutions of Karnataka, Minister Narayan said.

"Skill development needs to focus on aligning skill courses with standards, faculty training, and infrastructure resources. All these three aspects are considered in this initiative. The courses available on 'Future Skills Prime' are as per national occupational standards of the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF). All these courses will have access online for both faculty and students and those who want to learn these courses can access it on computers as well as tablets and smartphones", the Minister explained.

Under the MoU, three courses of Digital Fluency, Artificial Intelligence, and Cyber Security will become part of the curriculum. They will be made available free of cost to non-Computer Science students and faculty members of the state. All these courses will have the theory and practical components guarantying the skill development among the learners, the Minister pointed out.

As per study reports, though the Indian IT services industry has the potential to touch $300-350 billion in revenues by 2025, the lack of digital talent would be a major challenge to be resolved in reaching this milestone. The demand for digital skills in India is eight times what is available and will rise 20 times by 2024, he told.

National Education Policy 2020 emphasizes skill development. Undergraduate degree programs will focus on employability skills thereby preparing the state for digital transformation, he said.

'Digital Fluency' is an introductory course for UG first year focusing on five technologies like Cloud, IoT, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Cyber Security and their application in day to day life.

'Artificial Intelligence' course for UG second year designed by Microsoft is aligned with national occupational standards of NSQF and has provision for certification by Microsoft.

'Cyber Security' course for UG second year designed by CISCO is aligned with NSQF has provision for certification by CISCO.

Prof. B. Thimmegowda, Vice-Chairman, SHEC; Prof. Gopalakrishna Joshi, ED, SHEC; Tandava Gowda, Administrator, SHEC; Navneet Samaiyar of NASSCOM, Dinesh Kumar Panigrahi of NASSCOM were present.