Vocational colleges in India to soon have a course on Electric Vehicle Tech

Vocational colleges in India to soon have a course on Electric Vehicle Tech

Vocational colleges in India to soon have a course on Electric Vehicle Tech: The training course is being planned by the Directorate General of Training (DGT) under the Indian Ministry of Skills

 

Short term course will be started initially in 5-10 ITIs

 

Earlier in May, MSDE was reported to be developing a program to meet the workforce needs of the EV segment

 

Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) of India are reportedly starting a course on electric vehicles to train youth in repair, installation and assembly of EVs. ITIs are established by the government to train the citizens in the required technical skills which can be used by the industry to meet the demand of skilled workers.

 

According to a report by BusinessLine, this short term course will be initially started in 5-10 ITIs in the next four months.

 

“We are starting with a handful of ITIs as we want to expand to cities first where manufacturers are likely to launch electric vehicles. Once the basic curriculum in some ITIs is tested and a set of instructors are created, scaling up will become easier,” the report quoted a government official commenting on the programme.

 

The curriculum is being planned by the Directorate General of Training (DGT) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), which conducts ITIs. Another MSDE body, the Central Staff Training and Research Institute (CSTRI) will work on designing the curriculum and is said to be in talks with industry experts for curriculum development.

 

Earlier in May, MSDE was reported to be developing a program to meet the workforce needs of the electric vehicle segment in India. Even at that time, the government body had sought support from the Director General of Training as well as other stakeholder ministries, related sector skill councils including automotive and power.

 

Shortage of skilled EV workforce in India

India is aggressively pursuing the target of 30% electric vehicles on the road by 2030. The latest development Government think-tank NITI Aayog proposes that only electric vehicles should be sold in India by 2030.

 

However, lack of skilled workforce in the electric vehicle segment has been one of the major hurdles in the government's ambitious EV plan. At the end of 2018, media reports showed a shortage of engineers in the electric vehicle industry.

 

At the time, demand for 5K engineers was anticipated to be majorly in electrical, electronic and mechanical disciplines. Furthermore, TeamLease, an HR company, predicted this demand to reach 15K in the next two years.

 
To meet this huge industry demand, both leading Indian institutions and industry leaders started contributing to the skilling of youth in the electric vehicle segment.

 

Last year, IIT Delhi launched a master's degree program on Automotive Tech and Electric Vehicles. In addition, electric vehicle online courses are available in the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), an educational initiative by seven IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee) and IISc Bangalore.

 

Meanwhile, automakers like Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto are recruiting students from IIT Roorkee for research and development work on EVs.