Pune University And PCMC Join Hands To Start Smart Training and Innovation Center

Pune, 04 August 2021: The pandemic is changing the way we live and is also changing the way businesses were done traditionally. Many businesses have suffered and thus the job opportunities have shrunk. At the same time new opportunities are opening up. To equip the youth with the required contemporary and futuristic skills the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and the Savitribai Phule Pune Univserty are coming together to start the Smart Training and Innovation Center (STIC).

The STIC initiative was jointly inaugurated by Usha (Maaie) Dhore, Mayor, PCMC and Prof Nitin Karmalkar, Vice Chancellor, Savitribai Phule Pune University. Other Dignitaries like Laxman Jagtap, MLA, Rajesh Patil, Municipal Commissioner, PCMC and Dr. Apoorva Palkar, Director – Innovation, Incubation and Linkages, SPPU, Dr. N. S. Umarani – Pro VC, SPPU, Prof. Prafull Pawar, Registrar, SPPU were present on the occasion.

The objective of this nationwide unique initiative of a Municipal Corporation and a Leading Public University of the State is the capacity development of the job seekers and is to contribute in creating the workforce for the next industrial revolution. This pioneering effort can act as a path breaking model and shall work towards the employability enhancement of young citizens by giving them job-oriented training. It will extend support the industrial economy of the municipal corporation by creating manpower for the industries in and around.

To begin with, about 4 training programs shall be offered under this initiative including Microsoft – Azure Cloud Administration, RedHat – Linux Administration, SAP ABAP & MM for Accounts, Finance & Back office and Autocad in Design from Autodesk. Initially, the programs would be offered online with some live and recorded sessions and eventually the programs would be run in a blended format with both online and offline training methods. The eligibility criteria for enrolment to these programs would be graduation. Importantly, the training programs would be extremely cost competitive and would be 30-40% lesser as compared to prevailing market prices.

Some of the most important advantages that STIC will offer will include basic trainings to improve the employability, advance trainings to open-up global and higher opportunities, access to trainings design by industry leaders with focus on employability and advance along with the access to the industry recognized trainers. Secondly, many of the jobs are tech – semi tech skills driven, here training shall be provided to non tech background candidates as well to get the opportunity in tech areas too.

“The definition of education and employment are changing in the Corona time. In today’s world many new opportunities are getting created the online mediums. This STIC initiative would prove to be an important and useful platform for acquiring the relevant skills. Though the initiative will take off with 4 courses eventually it would have about 400 courses through two different platforms. There would be equal emphasis on multidisciplinary aspects like humanities, social studies and soft skills”, said Prof Nitin Karmalkar.

“Along with development in PCMC, we also need knowledge and education and no one should be deprived of it. The development work in PCMC can halt for sometime but not education,” said Laxman Jagtap, MLA.

Usha (Maaie) Dhore, Mayor, PCMC said, “Arts, education and culture are important subjects in today’s times. We must create our education system in such a way that people coming here from other places to study should say that they are ‘Skilled’ rather than only educated.”

Rajesh Patil Municipal Commissioner, PCMC said, “The basic thought process of this initiative and the training programs would be based on the fact that  today’s skills will not necessarily match the jobs of tomorrow, newly acquired skills may quickly become obsolete, which means that people will have to increasingly learn new skills to remain employable throughout their working life. The skills utilized 5 years ago may get outdated fast. Thus, we have to think for the next 10-12 years and get ourselves prepared accordingly. Such kind of new age skills oriented training modules would be beneficial for the middle class and the lower middle class due to the reduced cost.”

Dr. Apoorva Palkar made an introductory presentation about the STIC at the beginning of function and Senate member Santoh Dhore presented the vote of thanks.

The information regarding the courses will be available on www.sticonline.in

Join our WhatsApp Group, Telegram, and Twitter for every update about Pune and PCMC