Giving a digital push to skilling, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said the government plans to launch a digital ecosystem for skilling and livelihood with an aim to skill, reskill and upskill citizens through online training.

It will also provide API-based skill credentials and payment layers to find the relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities, the finance minister said.    

Presenting the Budget for 2022-23, she said skilling programmes will be reoriented, and ITIs will start courses on skilling. The Digital DESH e-portal will be launched for the skilling, upskilling and reskilling of youth.

One class, one TV channel' program of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12, she said.

Sitharaman added that a digital university will be established to provide world-class education to students across the country. The university under ICT will be built on a network hub and spoke model.

“The pandemic forced the closure of educational institutions which led to a huge loss of learning for children in the rural areas. The government’s decision to launch Digital DESH e-portal for the skilling, reskilling and upskilling of the youth is definitely a great incentive keeping in mind the importance of upskilling and reskilling in the present scenario.  The setting up of a Digital University to provide access to students for world-class quality education with ISTE Standards  is going to drive a huge change in the lives of students across the country. The initiatives announced by the government today will pave the way for building a workforce that will be skilled and ahead of the curve in their respective professions," said Krishna Kumar, founder and CEO, Simplilearn.

Skilling has become the need of the hour for various industries with new and emerging technologies. The 2021 IT Skills and Salary Survey by digital learning company Skillsoft found that there are critical skill gaps in 75% of IT departments which are increasing stress levels and decreasing productivity.

According to a report by FICCI in 2021, at least 9% of Indians will be in jobs that do not exist currently and 37% of the workforce will require radically changed skill sets to meet their employment demands.