FutureSkills Prime, a NASSCOM and MeitY digital skilling initiative, launches the first-of-its-kind Government of India (GoI) Incentives.
The platform is an end-to-end re-skilling/up-skilling destination to transform the talent story of the country. This huge step will go a long way in funding the ambitions of eligible learners by enabling them to navigate careers in emerging technologies.
By building a digital talent stack and catering to the rising need of the industry for a ‘future-ready’ workforce, FutureSkills Prime aims to enable fulfilling the vision of India becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2025.
The FutureSkills Prime is a dedication to the nation – towards it becoming a digital talent nation. It is an aggregator of aggregator learning platform offering globally competitive curriculum, aligned with the industry, and approved by the government. It emphasises on online anywhere-anytime continuous learning (with no geographical barriers), resulting in a democratisation of learning across India along with an equitable learning and employability prospect for all. It works as an enabler whereby, a candidate can take a diagnostic test and make informed decisions based on the results about further training and ultimately their careers. Since technological frameworks are ever evolving, the programme aims to develop an integrated high-quality system of training that constantly responds to these evolving needs.
It also offers ‘badges’ which is a recognition of the aspirant’s effort showing keen interest to get re-skilled/ up-skilled, ‘skills passport’ and ‘learners’ ledger’ that are unique to the platform and enable a learner to record his/her learning journey. To add to these features, it has components such as blended learning, faculty development, formative assessments, and learning analytics. FutureSkills Prime ensures a comprehensive competency framework which addresses all levels of skills from beginner to intermediate to advance.
A skilling platform like FutureSkills Prime is a result of the government’s willingness to extend its support to those who wish to learn emerging technology skills in an online mode, after classes, after office hours or while on the go.
As part of the journey to transform the digital learning landscape in India, the Incentives are a unique yet affordable program, whereby, potential learners can upskill in ten of the most in-demand advanced technologies and earn incentives up to INR 14,500. The program covers Foundation, Bridge, and Deep Skilling courses across technologies, including AI, IoT, Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Augmented/Virtual Reality, etc. While the FutureSkills Prime platform offers numerous industry-handpicked courses and pathways, many of them free of cost, this incentive program will help candidates to upskill in paid technical courses while earning reimbursement on completion.
Employees in both IT and non-IT firms, young professionals seeking a career in emerging technologies, central & state government employees, PSU officials and autonomous bodies, fresh hires, interns, and apprentices, all can benefit from this reimbursement program. The government of India will give reimbursement of INR 8000 or 50% of the course fee (whichever is lower) for the deep skill courses, INR 3000 or 50% of course fee (whichever is lower) for the foundation courses and INR 3000 or 50% of course fee (whichever is lower) for Bridge Courses.
The eligible learners can sign up for the GoI incentive scheme on FutureSkills Prime within 60 days of completing the course and clearing the assessment.
The platform aims to realise the capabilities of its demographic dividend, ready a talent pool for the industry and cater to the needs of the entire IT workforce of the country. India’s demand for Digital Talent jobs is currently 8x larger than the available talent pool and is expected to rise to 20x by 2024. By FY2024, the demand for professionals in emerging technologies is projected to increase by 38% while an increase in employed talent remains at just 29% as per a NASSCOM report. That’s the reason skill building has become more prevalent than it was prior to the pandemic, with 69 percent of organizations doing more skill building now than they did before the COVID-19 crisis, according to McKinsey. India’s digital story is one of digital empowerment and digital inclusion for digital transformation based on technology that is affordable, inclusive and equitable.
The FutureSkills Prime platform has made an enormous effort to tackle the dual challenge of digital upskilling and gender inclusivity by skilling more than 4 lakh people within a year and by having 37% women enrolment rate, which has been at a steady climb.