Karnataka: Higher education council, NASSCOM to equip students with industry-aligned skills

The KSHEC has identified three courses — digital fluency, artificial intelligence, and cyber security — to be included in the curriculum, with these made available free of cost to non-computer science students and faculty members. “All these courses will have theory and practical components guaranteeing skill development among the learners,” Ashwathnarayan highlighted.

Digital fluency will be an introductory course for undergraduate (UG) first-year students focusing on technologies and their applications in day-to-day life. The artificial intelligence course for UG second-year students is designed by Microsoft and the cyber security course, also for UG second-year students, by CISCO. Both these courses are aligned with National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) with the provision for certification by the respective companies.

Access to these courses will be offered from computers and gadgets like tablets and smartphones in a bid to ensure skill development align with standards, faculty training, and infrastructure resources, officials said.

Also the minister for IT & BT, science and technology, skill development, entrepreneurship and livelihood, Ashwathnarayan pointed out that various study reports predicted that the lack of digital talent would be a major challenge to the Indian IT services industry. “With the industry possessing a potential to touch $300-350 billion in revenues by 2025, such gaps should be closed as soon as possible. The demand for digital skills in India is eight times greater than what is available at present and is expected to rise 20 times by 2024,” he said.