New Delhi, Feb 27 (PTI) Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday launched the SWAYAM Plus platform, which will offer employability and professional development-focused programmes through collaboration with leading industry players such as L&T, Microsoft and CISCO.
The platform will be operated by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras.
“Working professionals to participate in the SWAYAM platform using it as a vehicle and take advantage of the multiple-entry-multiple-exit of NEP 2020. The platform will widen the scope of the classroom, adding 43 million students of higher education and working professionals,” Pradhan said.
“Higher education is no longer limited to the traditional student. It is now accessible to the working population as well. The NEP 2020’s provision for multiple entry and exit points allow individuals to pursue education at their own pace. This concept is embodied in SWAYAM Plus, a vehicle that enables working professionals to balance their work and studies by offering a plethora of online courses. With SWAYAM Plus, we are empowering individuals to upskill and reskill, enhancing their career prospects and contributing to India’s knowledge economy,” he added.
SWAYAM, the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform providing educational opportunities to a vast number of learners, was launched by the Union Ministry of Education in 2017 and had an enrolment of 72 lakh by the end of 2023.
In alignment with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the SWAYAM Plus platform will now include courses supporting industry needs that enhance the learners’ employability.
Developed in collaboration with industry giants such as L&T, Microsoft, CISCO, and others, SWAYAM Plus features innovative elements such as multilingual content, AI-enabled guidance, credit recognition and pathways to employment.
According to Pradhan, SWAYAM Plus primarily focuses on building an ecosystem for all stakeholders in professional and career development, including learners, course providers, industry, academia and strategic partners.
He said, “The other objectives of the platform include enabling a mechanism that provides credit recognition for high-quality certifications and courses offered by the best industry and academia partners; reaching a large learner base by catering to learning across the country, with a focus on reaching learners from tiers 2 and 3 towns and rural areas and offering employment-focused courses based on learner needs — across chosen disciplines with options to learn through resources in vernacular languages.” “SWAYAM Plus also envisions bringing in features such as access to mentorship, scholarships and job placements as value-added services in due course of time, thus building a digital ecosystem for learners to pursue upskilling and re-skilling at all levels, namely certificate, diploma or degree,” he added.
Higher Education Secretary K Sanjay Murthy urged for greater participation from industry leaders and also subject matter experts from universities and institutions to contribute courses on separate verticals, which will be certified by IIT-Madras.
“There will be a multitude of institutional mechanisms, which will examine such types of proposals to ensure need-based and timely responses. The content will be available in 12 major Indian languages,” Murthy said. PTI GJS SZM
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