Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) has announced that it has completed a decade of skilling workforce for the telecom industry with support from the government and industry partners over the years. With the 5G rollout expediting in this year in India, the need for ready skilled workforce is the greatest need of the hour. To address this growing demand, TSSC plans to train over 100,000 youth, get over 125,000 candidates placed across the industry through its placement initiatives like the TelcoJobs portal and establish at least 50 new training labs and centres of excellence (CoEs) across India in the coming year for various industry-relevant legacy and futuristic telecom job roles. These labs will be set up in ITIs and premier universities in a hub and spoke model. TSSC organised the event “Telecom Vision To 5G Skilling” on its 10th founder’s day.
TSSC announced their partnership with TiHAN, IIT Hyderabad which will focus on joint projects in skilling in emerging technologies such as 5G and its use cases, internet of things (IoT), cloud, artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), development of the courses, addressing specialised projects, skill training and other related services.
As an apex body for telecom skilling, TSSC over the years has expanded into new business avenues like corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects, development of CoE, international skill development programs, placements, and paid programs. Most recently, the industry body also inaugurated two CoEs in Patna and Delhi NCR and plans to establish three more by the end of fiscal year 2022-23.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) with TiHAN, IIT Hyderabad has been signed for a period of five years and will jointly identify the new areas to collaborate for new technologies and their capacity building in the form of courses, labs, equipment, teaching centres and CoEs. The support will be extended both ways in content development and skill training in special projects, academia or corporate and enhance employment among the youth. Under the partnership, TSSC will also provide support for TiHAN through training of trainers (ToT) and training of assessors (ToA) and participate in various government led training and private training programs on emerging technologies.
Speaking on the occasion, K Rajaraman, chairman, Digital Communications Commission, and secretary (telecommunications), Department of Telecommunications (DoT), said, “In last few months, we have been able to conduct several programmes and one of them is to sensitise all the state governments about the upcoming opportunities in 5G roll out. It is very important that we map the job requirements of other countries and standards they require. It is not only 5G, the upcoming semiconductor technologies, the growth of electronics manufacturing, the country and will require a range of skills which students need to be acquainted with. TSSC is also outlaying lot of money in collaboration with the industry, and it is very important for other stakeholders like state governments also to come forward in terms of laying out funds and focus on 5G and related skills for ensuring that that we lay the foundations of a digital economy across the country”
Meanwhile, Arvind Bali, chief executive officer, TSSC, said, “It is a very auspicious day for us today. We have come a long way since inception in 2013 with many mentors, partners, and proud candidates. We are especially thankful to Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), DoT and National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) for their continued guidance and support. We have constantly pushed towards expanding our footprint both nationally and internationally to create high-value projects which can help create a globally competent skilled workforce. Today, 5G technology is expected to boost the Indian economy by $450 billion between 2023 and 2040 and we are currently facing an acute shortage of about 1.4 lakh workers in 5G and its allied technologies. We are happy to partner with TiHAN – IIT Hyderabad on such an occasion as over the past decade, we have trained over 1 million candidates in various roles catering to the industry demand and this partnership will further propel our vision to skill/reskill/upskill the talent workforce at the highest possible level and make them aspire to the highest standards of quality and skill.”
The organisation has had tremendous support from MSDE, MeitY, DoT, and NCVET in charting a path for the youth workforce in the telecom industry. As part of the mandate by the government, TSSC will also train 100,000 youth in 5G and allied technologies over the next three years with support from DoT.
The event was attended by various dignitaries from the ministries, industry, and academia including K Rajaraman; Bhuvnesh Kumar, additional secretary, MeitY and others who deliberated the steps to be taken to achieve workforce skilling and optimisation for the next phase of India’s economic growth through 5G and production-linked incentive (PLI) this year.
