The Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation (TNSDC) will soon roll out skill-based courses at arts and engineering colleges across the State under the ‘Naan Mudhalvan’ scheme. “Currently, students are learning these courses outside colleges or after finishing their degree. We want to make these courses available to them while they are in college,” J. Innocent Divya, Managing Director of TNSDC, said.
For engineering colleges, TNSDC will offer courses on subjects including Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Industry 4.0, Machine Learning and Robotic Simulation in Manufacturing, among others. Gaming and Animation, Media and Journalism, Capital Markets, Financial Markets, Fintech, Health, Logistics and Interview Readiness are some of the courses that have been formulated for arts and science colleges. “All this will be made available through the Naan Mudhalvan portal that will be available on the TNSDC site. This initiative will be formally launched by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin,” Ms. Divya said.
According to her, offering these courses will give equal access to students from rural and urban pockets, and this will help companies recruit from across the State and not from any particular campus. “Around 150 industries across various sectors have expressed interest to work with us. We will work with them and understand what skill-sets they require and revamp our courses as and when new technologies emerge. In the longer term, we are looking at giving industries access to this portal for hiring, too,” she added.
“In the recent revision of the Anna University syllabus, we made Naan Mudhalvan electives mandatory. We can’t afford to change the entire curriculum every now and then. So, we will make sure this is being offered in each semester as part of the curriculum, and there will be credits for it. We will leave it to the college to decide how to integrate this,” she said.
TNSDC is also working with Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Mission (TANSIM) to create content on entrepreneurship for both engineering and arts and science students. “Today, everyone wants to venture into entrepreneurship, and we want students to learn and understand the nuances from the college itself. Since TANSIM is already working with startups, they can understand what the gap is in the market and what kind of orientation the students need,” Ms. Divya said.
