Skilling for the 5G Economy

Skilling for the 5G economy was one of the key sessions of the recently held Voice &Data TLF5G Conference last month in New Delhi. Sukanta De, Sdela Consulting, was the moderator of the session. He said skilling for 5G is very important. The indigenous test bed for 5G was done at IIT Madras. 5G will be driving all the elements of Industry 4.0. India has adopted all the elements. 5G will be the key driver.

How can the educational value chain be more inclusive? India has many languages. Lav Bhardwaj, Senior Consultant, NCVET, represented NCVET Chairman and said that education has been incorporating the future skilling areas. The national skills qualification framework has been looking at future skills. We have 250+ courses featuring IoT, AI, Industry 4.0 and 5.0, etc. We are now using technologies heavily across all sectors. We are also incorporating technologies. The government is seized of these problems.

We now need to reduce the skills gap. We are starting from school education. We are working with AICTE on several technology areas. NCVET is a new-age educator. We can have blended learning, and mix of all for the people.

Dr. Arvind Bali, CEO, of TSSC, said that as far as 5G skilling is concerned, most companies are well structured. From the government side, there was a lot of participation. We prepared all the qualifications. 5G will also be a use case for various sectors. Other technologies are also going to work on 5G. All of our qualification packs have got a lot of 5G-related stuff. We are well equipped. We are also going to set up 10 Centers of Excellence this financial year.

Last 5-6 years, the private sector has to learn from what has been happening in the government sector. The government has done a lot of work. The responsibility now comes on the private sector. Most of the time, you are skilling on the job. At TSSC, we are trying to bridge the gap between the industry and academia. We are well equipped to provide any kind of skilling.

Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi, added the 5G testbed was initially funded by the Ministry of Telecom. We worked on all aspects of software and hardware with IIT Madras. We have been looking at building up the research capability. We have looked at standards, security, etc. It is now available across the country. At IIT Delhi, we have Bharti School of Telecom. Faculty works on various aspects of telecom.

We are also looking at multiple use cases. We are looking at smart sensors for energy, etc. We are looking at gaming and entertainment, and imaging and healthcare. We have a vision and articulation for looking at individual projects. We are checking how we can interface with the industry, DRDO, Navy, and Army. We have challenges, such as interfacing with the industry, and also attracting students.

We need to look at the future needs of engineering managers in future. We need to do curriculum reviews all the time. We need to create a future workforce and have a competitive advantage. Startups will have a big role to play. We want to enhance our impact. We would like to work with the industry for future success.

Dr. NK Goyal, President, TEMA, noted that every Indian has the right to connect. We always have a dichotomy. India has given money for test labs. DoT is now looking for test labs. When it comes to research projects, India is capable of doing any kind of research. We want the access to the market. We have wonderful plans for skilling. We need to proliferate this to the education systems. We have been pushed into the digital era due to Covid-19 and government policies. Right to connect is a campaign to connect with the networks. Now, the government also wants to implement some digital fees.