Amity launches MOOC platform

News

By

-

October 14, 2015

In a move to spread the importance of online education amongst self motivated individuals who want to learn new skills and advance their careers without dropping commitment to their job or family, Amity University has launched MOOC platform to give tuition free degree programmes and short term certificate courses.

The courses can be accessed by anyone, anytime and anywhere. The objective of Amity MOOC is to provide tuition free career oriented degree and certificate courses through online mode of access. The degree course includes a three year Bachelor of Arts programme whereas certificate courses includes Business language and communication, marketing managements, web designing, fundamentals of e-commerce, social media marketing, digital marketing and many more, these courses will empower the learners bringing plethora of opportunities in their career and life.

The key features of these courses are topic wise online lectures, adaptive and outcome based learning along with keeping track of own progress with advanced learning platform.

Ajit Chauhan, Vice Chairman, Amity Online Education said, “Our Founder President, Dr. Chauhan’s mission is nation building through education and beyond. In this advanced technological era, we commit to fulfill this vision by taking a giant leap with “Tuition Free Education” through Amity MOOC. Learning is a continuous process and we believe that education should be accessible to all”

The government is now looking forward to spread the importance of online education amongst self motivated individuals who want to learn new skills and advance their careers without dropping commitment to their job or family. A major setback of Indian education system is the delay to update syllabus. Hence, in future, rather than obtaining a three-year degree course from a tier-1 or tier-2 city in India, there will be more takers for a professional course that is updated with the current industry demands.

Haryana to set up sports & skill development universities

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

October 14, 2015

The Haryana government is considering to set up three universities including sports and skill development universities. The announcement was made by Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, at the ‘Smagra Shiksha-Mukt Vimarsh’ workshop. He said that the state government is considering setting up a sports university with the objective to produce quality postgraduates in related subjects and to promote sports education.

In addition, a university for skill development and a university for education will be set up in the state. He further said that good teachers can improve the quality of education at all levels. The state government is considering to introduce School Leadership Training courses for teachers at the time of their promotions meanwhile creating a new path in service training by signing MoUs with major community-based organisations which are active in this field.

The Chief Minister assured to take all possible steps for improving education system. He said that quality education and nation building are the major priority sectors for the government. On the issue of over mapping of educational institutes, CM said that mapping of schools and colleges was being done to establish new institutes as per the requirement of the region.

The Chief Minister described the human resource development as a key factor and said that future of the state and the nation rests on this. “Today, human resource has become self-centric and this propensity can only be changed with emphasis to pass on moral values through education. The education at all levels starting from primary, higher, technical, skills etc should be such that an individual is able to work in the best interest of society, state and country,” he said.

He also emphasised on the need to adopt best practices for bridging the gap between quality of education in urban and rural areas.

PM extends timeline to upgrade NIFT campuses

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

October 14, 2015

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a nod to extend timeline for upgradation of the existing NIFT campuses for implementation of reservation for OBC students. The extension of the timeline is effective for utilisation of balance available fund of Rs.90.13 crore, by two years beyond 31 March 2015 which is now extended upto March 2017.

The move will enable upgradation of facilities for implementation of OBC reservation in NIFT and operating the campuses more effectively and efficiently. The scope of the scheme for upgradation of existing NIFT Campuses and implementing reservation for OBC students is to create additional infrastructure facilities at existing NIFT campuses, construction of additional class rooms, laboratories, hostel accommodation for students, purchase of machinery and equipments etc.

EMPI along with JLL to offer facilities management course

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

October 14, 2015

With Indian real estate advancing towards increasing corporatisation, there has been an increased demand for industry-ready facilities management professionals, and to bridge the demand gap, property consulting firm JLL India has tied up with Manpower group and EMPI Business School to offer certificate programmes in facilities management (FM).

Sandeep Sethi, Managing Director – Integrated Facilities Management, JLL West Asia, said this project would be a key differentiator for the facilities management talent landscape. The new certification programme will address this gap and would initially be launched in Delhi and Bengaluru.

“The aim of this collaborative career programme is to bridge the skills gap in India’s thriving FM sector, as well as provide candidates with the skill sets and opportunities to mould a successful career within the FM domain,” Manpower Group Director – Staffing Vishnu Dev said.

These co-created training and certification modules will be delivered by combining classroom learning with live apprenticeships in leading corporates. The three firms would jointly develop and deploy the education and placement programme.

JLL India will provide vital inputs to the curriculum, comprising of four months of classroom training and two months on-job internship. Manpower group will collaborate to ensure placements and job opportunities for the graduates, whose academic interventions will be conducted at the various EMPI campuses, a joint statement said.

“We look forward to seeding this new area of Facilities Management in India, jointly with two global corporates such as JLL and Manpower Group”, EMPI Business School Vice President Pankaj Saran said.

Staying abreast of new cyber threats

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

October 14, 2015

Cyber-security is one of the professions which is gaining popularity of late. To know the scope of the sector for professionals and the packages that it offers, Siddarth Bharwani, Director, Jetking tells Bhawna Satsangi of Elets News Network (ENN) about the increasing requirement of the cyber security professionals by 2020

How can cyber-security courses benefit the students?
A course in cyber-security would enable students to learn more about the challenges facing computer system infrastructure and how best to safeguard against cyber-attacks. They would become familiarised with Cyber-security fundamentals and can then apply it to their education or careers. They gain an insight by knowing where to look up the information and what kinds of tools they can actually use to deal with such instances.

Along with this, many well planned hands-on activities are done through what is called a virtual machine, which has the ability to simulate separate operating systems to give them a taste of how to deal with cyber-offence instances in real time.

What is the percentage of placement is there in these courses?
At present India has only 50,000 cyber security professionals. Whereas according to NASSCOM, the actual requirement is pegged at 5 million cyber security professionals by 2020 to meet local and export market demand.

Ideally, we should be training 77,000 ethical hackers per year. But the current supply is only of a mere 15,000 professionals mainly due to the lack of specialised courses.

Many industry personnel have been vocal about this pressing need and would be willing to hire such professionals for their valuable skill sets.

What is the duration of the course and what are the future prospects?

The duration of the courses are determined as per the level of specialisation the student wishes to pursue. A basic course can last for an intense one month of training, while a more holistic expert level course can last up to an entire year.

Cyber-security professionals are quickly being recognised for their contribution to organisations and the position of a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is becoming more alluring for senior IT professionals as companies look to move their businesses online.

Does the course offer best of package in the industry?

On the compensation side, a fresher may work as an intern for a couple of months and can start with a minimum of Rs. 3.5 lakh per annum. With one year of experience, one can expect up to Rs. 5.7 lakh per annum. Those with work experience five years or more can rake in anything between 10-12 lakh per annum.

Firms based out of Delhi and Bengaluru offer the best packages for these cyber security experts. But given the number of such professionals that will be soon sought after, these figures are bound to get bumped higher.

With the increasing cyber-crimes, frauds, etc. How are the current cyber security professionals gearing up to save companies from cyber threats?

Every 18 months in accordance with Moore’s law, there is a considerable change in hardware and software technology. Cyber security aspirants need to constantly update themselves and upgrade their skill sets to stay abreast of the new threats that malicious attackers may craft to exploit any vulnerabilities. To ensure a company’s network and infrastructure is safe, white hat professionals regularly test the effectiveness of their preventive measures to ensure the network is secure and keep a look out for any irregularities.

How one should safeguard one-self in the light of cyber threats?

The most important thing to keep in mind is to use strong passwords. Most hacks occur due to the simplicity of passwords the masses use. Do not share your password with anyone and change them frequently. One should be mindful of the information they share online and who it is visible to. Don’t accept invites from strangers and check your privacy settings often.

To ensure the site you’re visiting is genuine always look for the green lock sign in the address bar. If it is green, it means it is a verified site. The same goes for your applications. Make sure the apps you install are verified by Google play. Do not open attachments from unknown people and scan the files before opening them. Get your phone repaired only by authentic vendors and keep your guarantee upto date. Hardware too is one way for hackers to corrupt your devices.

Despite all of these measures, if you are still hacked, then immediately file a report with the concerned authorities.

Himachal opens door for girls madarsa

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

October 14, 2015

In a bid to impart both Islamic and basic education equally to girl children in the state, the management of the Madrasa Quadria, in Missarwala village on Nahan-Paonta Sahib road is working on a plan to start a separate madarsa, informed an official.

M Kabiruddin Faran Mazahiri, nazim (head) of the Madrasa said: “If we are talking of saving the girl child and have declared female foeticide as qatal (murder), then should we not be thinking of educating the girl child. To begin with, we will start a madrasa — the first in Himachal Pradesh. We propose to accommodate 100 girl students in the first batch maybe next year.”

There were lack of resources that attributed the delay in initialising it, according to Mazahiri. Muslims make up just two per cent of the state’s population and Mazahiri say that fewer families are sending girls to schools.

Beside Missarwala, the three other madrasas in the state are in Shimla, Chamba and Nalagarh. The madrasa in Missarwala caters to students from other states as well.

“We have a strength of 586 students and the highest number of them are from Sirmaur district (179). There are 151 students from Bihar and another 77 from UP. Students from Punjab, Jharkhand, Haryana and Nepal are also getting their education here,” Mazahiri said.

The students study all subjects, including Hindi till class V, after which the curriculum focuses entirely on religious education. The management is also reluctant to accept government grants under the centrally funded scheme for modernisation of madrasas fearing that it would lead to interference in their education pattern.

“We are ready for modernisation but will seek details from the government on the funding pattern and will study everything before deciding if we want to take the Central grants,” he added.

Himachal striving for quality education

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

October 13, 2015

Even as the country is gearing up and basking in the digital learning phase, the Himachal Government is finding means to ensure the state reaps in qualitative education and has initiated several steps to improve the standards of education in the state-run institutions.

The state has laid special focus on early reading, writing and numeracy at the elementary level and English has been introduced as a compulsory subject from class I to improve the communication skills, informed a senior official.

Further, specific directions have been issued to all the schools and there is special focus on teacher trainings under the Sava Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

The pupil teacher ratio in the state is divided into 14:1 in Primary, 13:1 at Upper Primary, 27:1 at Secondary and 15:1 at Higher Secondary, making Himachal Pradesh among the top states in the country, but the learning levels are very low and there is flight of students from government to private schools.

The scrapping of class V and Class X Board examinations have also affected the learning levels as both the teachers and students have become casual. The state government has started the internal evaluation system and the teachers constantly showing poor results are on government’s radar, the official said.

The state recruits only those teachers who fulfill the norms prescribed by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in Government Schools.

Teacher absenteeism is being monitored regularly and regular inspection/surprise visits of schools by Senior Officers, Deputy Directors and lower officers and Bio-metric machines have been installed in a few schools on trial basis.

MNIT organises Co-NIT meet

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

October 13, 2015

Co-NIT meet was recently organised in Jaipur by Technical and research institution, The Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT). NIT’s directors and deans attended the three day programme. The programme was graced by the respected Prof. D.P. Agrawal, Former Chairman, UPSC, Prof. Surendra Prasad, Chairman NBA and former Director, IIT Delhi, Prof. Vishwanath Sinha, Former Director LNMITT.

Over 100 directors, deans and faculties of 31 NITs participated from different cities. The objective of this meet was to prepare a strategic plan for NIT system for the nation building. This forum gave the opportunity to all NITs for discussing the best practices and way forward to be more relevant and effective for the next journey.

Prof. I K Bhatt, Director, MNIT said, “There are three significant issues that plays a major role in the growth of the NIT system. These are governance including leadership roles, academic design & delivery mechanisms and the last is eco-system for generation of knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship. To overcome all these challenges, we as teachers have to be concerned about good teaching which includes ‘what to teach’ and teaching students – how to learn. Going forward the role of teachers should be transformed as mentors and thereby the NIT system can go a long way in guiding the planners of this country and transform the nation.”

Prof. V. Sinha, Former Director of LNMIIT said, “NITs should strive towards creating a system for training global engineers equipped with advanced technology in harmony with the evolution of the society. The budding engineers whom we are mentoring today will be the active leaders in the society at least for the next 40 years. It is our pedagogical duty to make them the highly skilled leaders for tomorrow so that they can continuously provide good solutions of the problem so that they can serve society better. The reality is slowly dawning on us that we are becoming subjugated to the technological giants in the world. So we have to keep ourselves ready to be competitive.”

Prof. Surendra Prasad, Chairman National Board of Accreditation said, “Our key objective of taking NIT system to the next level also includes our accountability towards our stakeholders. We should look forward to transform the engineers into the leaders who can bring change in the society solving the problems.”

Prof. D P Agarwal, Former Chairman UPSC said, “Only 20% employment comes from the organised sector. The education that we are providing should be for the rest of the 80% unorganised sector. So that the skilled engineers can upgrade the unorganised sectors in the benefit of society at large. Also the institutions should look at giving more exposure to the students by designing the curricular in such a way that can actually provide students the industry experience. Some of the courses should be kept for self-studies and faculties should play the role of mentor.”

NSE join hands with IPS for education drive

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

October 13, 2015

With an aim to initiate the financial market education, awareness and literacy in the central part of the country, the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has signed an MoU with IPS Academy and launched a new education drive in Madhya Pradesh.

IPS is a large educational institution in the state of MP, and besides the Academy, the NSE has already tied up with 14 institutes in central India with courses ranging from classroom to online modules. IPS has started with a batch of 500 students, who will be opting for the NSE Certified Capital Market Professional (NCCMP) examination. The course consists of theory, practical and project work.

NSE has conducted 59 awareness programmes in different parts of central India in the first six months of the current financial year, with around 6,000 participants.

In these programmes – spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat – investors were advised on the steps they should take to ensure that their interests are protected. They were taught to trade cautiously, and not get misled by market rumours and invest according to an investment plan. The investors were also educated on the precautions to be taken before, during and after trading.

The programmes included a discussion on checking contract notes issued by brokers to investors, to verify whether only authorised trades have been executed by a Sebi (Securities & Exchange Board of India) registered broker and the mandatory and voluntary documents should be executed between the investor and the member broker, and on the need for investors to see the risk disclosure documents for safe investing.

Centum Learning opens skill development centres in Ghaziabad

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

October 13, 2015

Centum Learning, global skill development and vocational training company, has been appointed by Gen (Dr) Vijay Kumar Singh – Minister of State for Statistics & Programme Implementation, Minister of State for External Affairs, to set up Multi Skill Development Centres under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana in Ghaziabad. This was in line with Prime Minister’s mandate requesting all MPs’ to make his/her constituency as a model place for skilling and empowering.

Basis the findings of NSDC report on skill requirement in the district, Centum Learning will be conducting training in the following courses: Retail, Beauty & Wellness, Construction, Healthcare, and Tourism & Hospitality. As per industry requirement, there will approximately be 5000 candidates trained in Retail, 2000 in Beauty & Wellness and 1000 in each of the other three sectors.

Job roles will include trainee and sales associate in Retail, customer service executive in Tourism, beautician & hair stylist in Beauty & Wellness, general duty assistant & diabetes educator in Healthcare and Mason & electrician general in Construction. State-of-the-art centres are expected to be set up in the next one month in places like Mirpur Hindu, Pilkhua, Loni, Kaushambi, Khoda Village, Dhalana, etc. These centres will be fully equipped with labs as per the sector skill council norms to provide theoretical and on-the-job training to 10,000 youth.

Skilling programmes will be carried out under National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and standardised curriculum has been developed basis national occupational standards. Duration of each course will be between 150-200 hours and training will be imparted both in English and Hindi. After the completion of course, there will be a stringent assessment process followed by certification.

On the occasion of the launch, Sanjeev Duggal said, “While we are expanding our footprint across different corners of India, we are grounded to our roots and have consciously selected this constituency to skill youth including women thereby contributing to making Ghaziabad a smart place. We will be setting up numerous centres in different parts of the city so that youth need not travel far to get employability linked training”.

Gen (Dr) Vijay Kumar Singh, MP Ghaziabad added, “I am happy to announce that Centum Learning will open multiple centers in a short period of time in Ghaziabad to help citizens obtain quality jobs and also open their own business realising the goal of ‘Start Up India – Stand Up India’ promoted by our Hon’ble PM.I believe that this understanding with Centum will provide much desired impetus and skill to citizens of our constituency who can then get better life opportunities.”

Recently multiple skilling centers were launched across Bihar as a part of a special Independence Day initiative by Centum Learning to highlight the significance of skills training and how it will play a critical role in providing independence from unemployment. According to census data, workforce of the future will be from states like UP and Bihar making it imperative that youth power be harnessed for accelerated social and economic growth.

LATEST NEWS

EDITOR PICKS

Top Trending News

POPULAR POSTS

Top Trending Categories

POPULAR CATEGORY

Latest Articles