The Bharat Skills learning platform has introduced a new feature, the Bharat Skills Forum. According to a press release from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, it enables the sharing of books, notes, videos, question banks, and other relevant skill-related content for learners.
The release described it as a digital warehouse for the skilling community. It also allows the sharing of content in various forms like handwritten trainers’ or trainees’ notes, PDFs, scanned copies, or recorded videos in any language.
In October 2019, the Directorate General of Training (DGT) launched Bharat Skills, a central digital repository for the trainees and trainers of the ITI ecosystem. It provides easy access to updated curricula, e-books, question banks, mock/practice papers, and learning videos for courses under the Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS), Craft Instructor Training Scheme (CITS), and the Apprenticeship Training Scheme (ATS).
The platform enables learning outside classrooms. This platform presents unique access to a centralized, scalable, and thriving support ecosystem through its industrial partners for the students and teachers who can now learn the new age (Industrial Revolution 4.0) skills to meet the demands of the industry. The usage of the Bharat Skills learning platform has increased multi-fold from around 90,000 users in March 2020 to more than 4.8 million unique users that accessed the portal and over 17.5 million hits as of date.
The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Secretary, Atul Kumar, launched the Bharat Skills Forum. Kumar said that the Bharat Skills Forum is a two-way facility for trainers, trainees, and those interested in skill training. It enables the sharing of relevant content within the skill community. The Bharat Skills Forum is for and by the skill community, he added.
It was launched by the DGT, under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. DFT is the national apex organisation that coordinates, supports, and develops programmes on vocational training.
Upskilling portals and e-learning websites were a crucial part of the education sector during the pandemic and the government wants to take advantage of the digital benefits during the new normal as well. In July, the Department of Posts launched an online educational website to enhance the competencies of about 400,000 rural postal service and departmental employees by providing them access to standardised training content online or in a blended campus mode. The move would empower them to effectively deliver several government-to-citizen (G2C) services for enhanced customer satisfaction. The training videos and quizzes on the portal are available in 12 Indian languages.
In August, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras’ National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) introduced an online portal to help students prepare for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).
The GATE is a national-level entrance exam that enables aspirants to seek admission for a master’s or PhD in IITs, IISc, or other premier institutions. Multiple PSUs recruit applicants based on the GATE score. Through the new portal, NPTEL aims to leverage its existing course contents on engineering and science domains from over 2,400-course portfolios, to provide video solutions, practice tests, and online assistance based on the GATE syllabus.
