In its continued endeavor to empower students to be future ready, Ministry of Education, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Microsoft have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This collaboration is aimed at creating skilling and job readiness for students and educators associated with AICTE and its partner institutions through a wide array of learning paths, technical and role-based certifications and experiences in areas including AI, cloud, data science, data analytics, and security. As a statutory body and a national-level council for technical education under the Ministry of Education, AICTE impacts over three million students and educators.
Under the MoU, Microsoft will integrate Microsoft Learn, the company’s centralized training and skilling platform to complement AICTE’s existing curriculum and offer students hands-on experience with Microsoft technologies. Microsoft will also provide students exposure to the Azure Developer Community in India for industry insights and mentorship. Students and educators will also have access to Azure Handbooks so that students can work on projects that solve problems for industries such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and education, among others. The Future Ready Talent Program will also be offered for skilling students and virtual mentorship on technology projects to strengthen their competences.
Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India, said, “In the time of digitization, new ideas, new innovations and new creativity, these technology companies’ partnerships with the education family (Shikshaa Parivar) are going to create new standards and benchmarks not only for our Indian students but with their knowledge and capacity, it will go beyond. These companies’ partnerships for internship and competence will certainly be helpful for all of us.“
Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE, said, “We are focused on creating opportunities for our students in the realm of new technologies so they can be empowered when entering the workforce. We are thrilled to partner with Microsoft in aiding our efforts to equip our students as well as our educators with the necessary digital skills and experiences they need to succeed in this digital era.”
Speaking about the collaboration, Venkat Krishnan, executive director, Public Sector, Education and Healthcare, Microsoft India, said, “Today’s youth is key to India’s inclusive economic growth, now and in the future. Our collaboration with AICTE is an extension of our commitment to empower students and educators with skills, training and experiences needed to navigate today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape. We are delighted by the opportunity to work closely with AICTE, its students and educator community to contribute to their skilling and future-readiness.”
The MoU’s signing and exchange took place in the august presence of Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India; Dr Subhas Sarkar, Minister of State for Education; Smt. Annapurna Devi, Minister of State for Education; Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs and Education; Secretaries of the Dept. of Higher Education, Dept. of School Education & Literacy, MoE and Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE; Dr. Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, Chairman, NCVET; Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), NAAC and NBA; Dr Abhay Jere, Vice Chairman, AICTE & Chief Innovation Officer, Ministry of Education; Dr. Chandrashekhar Buddhe, Chief Coordinating Officer, AICTE; Dr. Mamta R. Agarwal, Adviser, AICTE.
Microsoft has a deep commitment to ensuring everyone has access to digital skills for inclusive economic growth. Aimed at empowering India’s youth with technology skills for employability, Future Ready Talent Program is one such holistic skilling endeavor run in collaboration with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), FutureSkills Prime—a NASSCOM and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) digital skilling initiative, Ernst & Young (EY), GitHub and Quess Corp. As of June 2022, the program reached over 100,000 students across various disciplines and more than 3,400 students completed their internships with 100% placement rate. To apply for the Future Ready Talent Program, eligible students can visit the official website of the program.
