Skill academies to come up in ITIs

CHENNAI: In a bid to further improve students’ skills according to the latest industrial requirement, the Directorate of Technical Education has decided to establish skill academies and smart manufacturing technology centres.

Four areas include skill in electrical installation, industrial controls and drives, supervisory control and data acquisition and digital manufacturing.

“A total of six technology centres will be coming up in as many as state-owned industrial training institutes,” a senior official from the Higher Education Department told DT Next.

The main objective is to locate opportunities for automation procedures and use data analytics to improve the manufacturing process, he said.

He added that these centres will be established by signing a memorandum of understanding with major manufacturing units in the State to provide all the infrastructure including training to the students.

Stating that the government has allocated Rs 10 crore for setting up manufacturing technology centres, the official said “relevant training will be given to the students from the state-run institutions, who completed diploma and engineering degree courses.”

He said slowly smart manufacturing-related technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine language will also be introduced in the training curriculum. He said smart manufacturing training imparts a number of benefits including improved efficiency, increased productivity and long-term cost savings for both entrepreneurs and students, who go for employment.

“The training includes digital lecturers, live sessions, hands-on training and assignments,” he said adding “a special training module will be prepared in collaboration with experts in industrial units and high-level authorities on the government side.”

The official said after the training, successful candidates will be placed and entrepreneurs will be guided for startups.