New Delhi, May 2024.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under the aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, launched the Daksh Gurukul Skill Academyto provide credit linked programs in new-age skills to the youth.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. B Kalyan Chaudhary, Principal Secretary, Skill Development, Government of Assam said “Transformative programs offered under Daksh Gurukul-IITG holds immense potential in democratizing the excellence of IIT education for masses and equipping them with the necessary skills in today’s evolving job market. The credit linkage flexibility of these programs ensures that every student's learning is duly recognized, without imposing any extra burden. I am certain that the partnership will benefit the students of Assam immensely setting a precedence for smooth nationwide adoption of National Education Policy (NEP)”.

The event was graced by Dr. B Kalyan Chaudhary, Principal Secretary, Skill Development, Government of Assam; Prof. Rajeev Ahuja (Director, IITG) and Prof. Gaurav Trivedi (Associate Dean- Faculty Affairs, Coordinator- Daksh Gurukul-IITG). Mr. Abhinav Mishra from NCVET, Mr. Pravesh Dudani, Academic Advisor-NSDC and Chancellor Medhavi Skills University, Dr. Mohan V Aware, Director, NIT Arunachal Pradesh, Prof. Eshankur Saikia from Guwahati University.

The academy was launched formally during a roundtable discussion on “Capacity building for adoption of the New Education Policy and National Credit Framework” organized at IIT Guwahati and moderated by NSDC. The discussion centered on the comprehensive approach of empowering students with new-age employability skills by seamlessly integrating credits into mainstream degrees through credit transfer facilitated by the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) under the National Credit Framework (NCrF).

India’s education and skilling ecosystem is witnessing one of the biggest ever progressive transformation in the form of vision paved by the new education policy and Daksh-Gurukul IITG is a pioneering initiative in this regard. The discussion also highlighted the flexibility of credit transfer paved by the New Education Policy, which allows students to smoothly transfer the credits to degree programs to meet the demand for skilled professionals in new-age technologies subject to the external credits being recognized by the parent university.

In March, NSDC signed a tripartite MoU with leading edtech partners—Rooman Technologies, Yuvaan Educative LLP, Acciojob, Masai School and MentorKartin March who have presented about their offerings on avenues for holistic growth and development. NSDC Partner Masai School has already launched the first batch of its micro-credit program in Computer Science with Daksh-Gurukul-IITG on 15^th April, which is course-wise equivalent to 24 credits.

The initiatives like Daksh Gurukul-IITG holds immense potential in offering new opportunities to young talent from North-East and beyond by allowing them to gain real-world experience while pursuing their degrees, thereby, makes them employment ready. It aims to enrich their learning experience, develop networking opportunities and broaden meaningful employment opportunities.