NSIM

Telecom Sector Skill Council announces to train and skill 45 lakh youth in the next 5 years. This would leverage the humongous opportunities in the Indian telecom sector.

LUCKNOW: Telecom Sector Skill Council has announced the ambitious nation-wide program to train and skill 45 lakh youths in the next 5 years to enable them to leverage the humungous opportunities in the offing in the Indian telecom sector. The announcement was made at the conference on 'Skill Development in Telecom Sector and Telecom Sector Skill Plan' in Lucknow.

Given the impressive growth of telecom sector till date and its projected growth over the next decade, telecom sector will require and create over 8 million trained and skilled workforces by 2022 to continue its momentum and be the bedrock of digital economy. "Our aim is to impact maximum number of people and increase skilled workforce in the telecom industry. Today, we are digitally equipped to deliver training even on Mount Everest with the best of instructors and training material in a blended format," said Lt General SP Kochhar, Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC)

Talking about TSSC's mission, General Kocchar said that TSSC's objective is to narrow down the existing gap between demand and supply of skills for the critical telecom sector. As per research, India will require more than 8 million skilled personnel across various verticals to match the growth of 15% per annum of telecom sector - the bedrock of digital economy. Mobile economy is also projected to contribute anywhere between 6%-10% of India's GDP by 2022. Telecom service market alone is projected to grow USD 103.9 billion by 2020. Under the current program, TSSC will also train 24,000 trainers; collaborate with 500 training organizations and over 200 industry partners to cover the whole country progressively over a period of next 10 years.

"Apart from skill development courses, we are also going to focus on 'Training the Trainers' program to ensure that the rollout of the plan is smooth and outcome is time bound", added Kochhar.The announcement comes at a time when India is fast marching towards digital economy where telecom sector will play the pivotal role in nation building and quality job creation. TSCC has already been imparting various telecom related courses including those in collaboration with various industry partners. It has collaborated with 24 state governments, the central government, and a host of academic institutions. TSSC has around 485 training partners and about 2100 training outlets.