CII and AICTE sign MoU for technical education

New Delhi, May 26: Industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) here to enhance global mobility of the Indian engineers.

The MoU also aims to align the Indian accreditation with the global accreditation system.

''Technical skills should be imparted through industry-oriented training,'' said AICTE Chairman Damodar Acharya.

He said economic growth could be hampered due to lack of skilled manpower and the agreement would create a workforce of competent manpower in the specific fields and as per industry requirement to maintain a double-digit economic growth.

He also suggested introduction of flexibility in choice of subjects, relative grading system and credit based knowledge system apart from curriculum change.

''Semester-wise registration, abolition of external system and quality assurance are some of the issues that education system of the country should focus on,'' said Prof Acharya.

AICTE will also partner with NASSCOM for an online testing and certification for general and domain specific courses for these courses, added Prof Acharya.

He said AICTE will provide different post-graduate level diploma courses and advanced diploma courses for 20-30 different verticals which industry will identify and provide theoretical and practical inputs.

A portal will be developed jointly by CII and AICTE which will provide information regarding the industry projects, bio-data of the students and address the critical issues of the industry, he added.

The industry has expressed concern over the lack of skilled manpower and erosion of public confidence on the certification process of technical education, said AICTE Vice Chairman R A Yadav.

''CII as part of the short term plans will focus on bridging skills that would suit a person to be part of the industry,'' said CII National Committee on Education Chairman Vijay K Thadani.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for implementing the 'Skill Development Initiative' scheme at a total cost of Rs 550 crore, with 100 per cent central assistance, said CII Director General Lieutenant General (Retd) S S Mehta.

UNI