Wadhwani AI signs MoU with NSDC to deploy AI-based skilling solution

Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], March 28 (ANI/NewsVoir): The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Wadhwani AI) has signed an MoU with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to explore the scaled deployment of their solution - Upskiller, an AI-powered course recommendation system for candidates, bridging knowledge gaps in their existing jobs and upskilling for their careers. The scope of the solution is to reach 10 lakh candidates across India within the first year of deployment. The partnership marks the institute's foray into the skilling and education domain (in addition to its AI solutions in healthcare & agriculture). The solution also aims to facilitate the AI-readiness of the NSDC through capacity-building initiatives on the responsible use of AI and its applications to enhance skilling systems in the country.

Upskiller will analyze the data from candidates' education and employment profiles as well as their career aspirations to create personalized course recommendations. Wadhwani AI will initially leverage the digital repository already present within the NSDC for specific job roles to develop the recommendation system.

Developed and deployed within the NSDC's tech ecosystem, Upskiller would begin with one of the NSDC's skill development programs, and eventually cover all programs, reaching 37 sectors and thousands of job roles.

The solution has the potential to be combined with the physical training premises where the candidates log on to the NSDC portal, register for the course, and have a hybrid learning environment such as online modules and offline sessions at a nearby NSDC-recognised training provider. The candidates would get a platform to track their skill development experience in line with their career path.

"We are looking forward to working with the NSDC towards empowering the people of India; to identify and arm themselves with the skills they require to become meaningfully and securely employed. Our mission is to create impact at scale and improve lives and livelihoods across the country by using AI to augment government initiatives; this formal partnership with the NSDC gives us yet another opportunity to do just that," said Shekar Sivasubramanian, Chief Executive Officer, Wadhwani AI.

"Together with the NSDC, we are confident and committed to building AI-powered solutions that will optimise the mapping of supply and demand of skilled individuals and improve the employability of our country's workforce," said Nakul Jain, Director - Solutions, Wadhwani AI.

Between 2009 and 2020, 2.5 crore people have been trained by various programs implemented by NSDC. There are over 2500 job roles, over 350 e-courses, nearly 1 lakh apprentices, over 2600 registered establishments under National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, over 45000 trainers and 24000 assessors, and over 700 Model Training Centres within their network. In FY 2019-20, nearly 25 lakh candidates were trained and of them, nearly 4 lakh were placed.

The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Wadhwani AI) is a cross-domain AI impact institute based in India, developing and deploying AI solutions with a mission to create impact at scale and improve lives and livelihoods across the global south. We work closely with governments and global partners to solve complex problems affecting developing countries, where AI could play a transformative role.

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