Guwahati, June 9: The Assam government and Tata Technologies Limited has entered into an agreement to upgrade 77 institutes, including 43 industrial training institutes (ITIs) and 34 polytechnics in the state.
The project, to be implemented at a cost of Rs 2390.08 crore, aims to transform technical education in the state where the workforce will be equipped with more employable skills and knowledge in accordance with the latest industry requirements.
The ITIs and polytechnics will be developed as Centres of Excellence for Industry 4.0 required skill sets.
“This will provide an opportunity to 15,000 to 20,000 students every year who study in these institutes, to learn new technologies related to Industry 4.0,” Assam skill, employment and entrepreneurship department (SEED) minister Jayanta Mallabaruah said.
Long term courses will be provided in the ITIs, including courses on mechanical electric vehicles, basic designer and virtual verifier, advanced CNC machining, manufacturing process control and automation, industrial robotics and digital manufacturing.
Besides, short term courses will be conducted in both ITIs and polytechnics including innovation and design thinking, fundamentals of product design, product design and development, auto electrical design and development, product verification and analysis, computer aided machining, advanced computer aided machining, process control and automation, fundamentals of automobile engineering, advanced automobile engineering, among other courses.
In the first phase, the government has planned to launch six centres of excellence in the month of September 2023, which includes three polytechnic institutions (at Sonitpur, Nalbari and Lakhimpur) and three ITIs (Nagaon, Tinsukia and Kajalgaon)
“Short term courses will commence in the three ITIs and three polytechnics from September 2023. Candidates will be able to apply for long term courses in the portal of ITIs and few short-term courses in polytechnics from August onwards,” Mallabaruah said.
Earlier, the minister held a meeting with the officials of skill, employment and entrepreneurship department at the Assam Skill Development Mission (ASDM) office at Gorchuk.
“In the meeting, we discussed various topics such as the possibility of providing equal status to ITI-qualified students on a par with the students pursuing general courses, various ongoing and upcoming training programmes undertaken by ASDM, along with its future initiatives, upgrading information and communication technology skills, etc,” he said.
The minister also held meetings with representatives of Tata Technologies, PWD department and contractors regarding the work progress of six ITIs and polytechnics into centres of excellence.
A meeting was also held with authorities from Larsen and Toubro (L&T) regarding the status of three institutes for construction training.
“In order to meet the needs of the future generations we need to create a modern skilled ecosystem with skilled human resources,” he said.