The ICT Academy will be focussing more on new age technologies and training students to be industry ready.
Tamil Nadu’s Information and Technology Minister T. Mano Thangaraj, said, “New areas of training including multi-disciplinary training are being introduced this year. Drone technology and robotics are also being introduced.” Filling the skill gap is the need of the hour and ICT academy will play a major role in this, he added.
According to the Minister, this year the academy plans to embed some foundation skills like problem solving, critical thinking, design thinking, project management, communication among others into the technology programmes.
Plans are also on to offer programmes in technology for BFSI, retail, manufacturing and construction students. Training programmes in electronic system design (ESD) are being developed to help the academia have an industry ready workforce. One of the new methods of assessment is the hackathon format and ICT plans to launch this across Tamil Nadu when the academic year begins. “Despite THE pandemic, for the year 2021-22, ICT academy was able to train close to 6,500 teachers and around 36,000 students. The plan is to reach out to 1,00,000 students in 2022-23,” Mr.Thangaraj said.
In March this year, ICT academy of Tamil Nadu said that it would set up a centre of excellence. When asked about an update on this, the Minister said, “The centre would be set up in collaboration with industry and technology companies. It will provide best practices, design of assessments, research, and support in skilling for the IT / ITes industry with a multi-disciplinary approach.”
Last year, there was a buzz about some mismanagement at the ICT Academy in Chennai, when asked about it, the Minister said that the entire team was revamped and now the new management team is putting all the standard operating procedures in place.
“There is a revamp in the procurement policy to ensure transparency and fairness in all transactions. The focus now is to skill as many people and help the State achieve its $1 trillion economy by 2030,” he said.
