Bridge the tech divide
Organisations such as ICTACT are providing an excellent platform to hone the employability skills of students.
The field of information and communication technology (ICT) is advancing in leaps and bounds with changes happening quicker than ever before. Technology that was developed in the West used to take decades to reach developing countries such as India, but that was the story of the 1970s. Now, not only is information technology a part of our lives, it is also becoming indispensable to learn and grasp this technology for anyone who wishes to run this race. But within the country, there exists the infamous “digital divide,” and it is something of a privilege to learn about new technology as soon as it is launched.
Another buzzword among those who study Indian youth is “employability.” In this context, the efforts of the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) are commendable.
A non-governmental organisation supported by Central and State governments as well as private enterprises, the academy believes that while soft skills are important for individuals to make a mark, there is an urgent need to impart digital literacy to those not in touch with digital technology, and training in ICT for students.
“Users of digital technology are like a pyramid, with the industry and top-level users at the apex, the students in the middle section and the bulk of the rural and poor population at the bottom.
It is important to address their needs separately,” says B. Anbuthambi, vice-president, Education Initiatives, ICTACT.
Nurturing innovation
With the theme for 2015 being “The new digital world,” ICTACT plans to train 3,000 teachers and 20,000 students in cloud computing and big data analytics. This is being done with the help of collaborator EMC. They also plan to focus on educating students on social networks and mobile app development.
The academy will also pave the way for honing entrepreneurship interests of the students.
Fifty entrepreneurship development centres have been set up across Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs.50 lakh. “ICT will support the seed-to-sapling growth of those interested in entrepreneurship. We will then link them with technology incubators,” says Mr. Anbuthambi.
ICTACT is also setting up Youth Clubs where students from second and third years of college, across the State, can get together and carry out 20 activities that will help them develop communication and presentation abilities.
While basic programmes in digital literacy are for everyone, advanced packages, such as in big data analytics, cloud computing, image processing and others, are for computer science, engineering, statistics and mathematics majors.
Trainers from 50 nodal centres in the State will be involved in seeing these programmes through. While the basic programmes comprising 40 hours in class and 40 optional hours online are free of cost, students are charged a nominal fee for assessment and certification.
At present, about 450 colleges are members of ICTACT’s development programme and they have 12 technology partners including EMC, Oracle and IBM.
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