Hindustan Times
Dec 15, 2022
C-DAC Pune can now design its own curriculum, hold examinations, and award its own certification like an autonomous university
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Pune has become the first C-DAC institute in the country to get certification from the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) under the ministry of skills’ development and entrepreneurship to design its own curriculum, hold examinations, and award its own certification like an autonomous university. Furthermore, students pursuing courses at the C-DAC will now get credit ratings that will be added to their credit ratings’ bank for future employment and education opportunities in India and abroad. The C-DAC had earlier applied to the skills’ development ministry, and has now got the dual status of awarding body for certifications as well as assessing authority.
Col. A K Nath (retired), executive director, C-DAC Pune, said, “Academics is our flagship programme. Recently, the skills’ development ministry has introduced certain changes across the nation to standardise all this technical training. Accordingly, we too had applied to the ministry and have got the dual status of an awarding body for certifications as well as an assessing authority like an autonomous university. We will now have our own programmes and curriculum and we can hold examinations based on our system and award certificates to students.”
The C-DAC Pune had applied to the NCVET under the ministry of skills’ development and entrepreneurship for this process. After completing the entire process with the NCVET, the C-DAC Pune has become the first C-DAC amongst all other C-DAC institutions in the country to get ‘AA’ and ‘AB’ certification from the NCVET to run its academic programmes independently. Earlier, all programmes and courses at C-DAC Pune were aligned with the National Skills’ Qualifications’ Framework (NSQF).
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Pune has become the first C-DAC institute in the country to get certification from the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)
“After getting this certification from the NCVET to run academic programmes independently, we are now in the process of realigning our courses because some changes have been brought about. The process has already been started; the good part which is happening now is that a lot of these courses will be coming under the National Credit Rating Framework (NCRF) so that the course content will be analysed and the NCVET will tell us how many credits a student would get while taking a certain course under the NCRF. Students can keep these credits with them along with their ongoing under-graduate (UG) or post-graduate (PG) courses and these additional credits will be added to their academic career programme,” said col. Nath.
“These credits will be added to the students’ credit rating bank which will help. So, if a B. Tech student takes this course at C-DAC, it will help him/her in employment opportunities within and outside the country. It will also give him/her a global credit rating with which he/her can also apply to universities abroad,” he added.
Students have welcomed the C-DAC’s move and Gandhar Manathe, a B. Tech second-year student, said, “I was about to apply to the C-DAC for one of its courses and now, if we are getting credit points for it with the C-DAC’s own certification, it would certainly be beneficial for our career. This is a great development for students who are studying and willing to study with C-DAC Pune in future.”
C-DAC education and training
C-DAC’s education and training programmes are aimed at creating skilled manpower in the country by providing quality training programmes in the field of electronics and ICT. This activity started almost two decades ago and from training 20 students per year, it has today grown to the extent of training more than 5,000 students per year. It has also grown from just one training centre to about 50 training centres across India, and has even made its presence felt in several other countries. C-DAC has a wide range of training programmes in the areas of information, communication and electronics technologies, and also develops ICT tools and technologies for modern methods of imparting education and training to the masses.
The education and training activities of the C-DAC are governed and steered by the Academic Council (AC) and Academic Management Committee (AMC). Presently, the C-DAC offers its various training programmes through its own training centres at Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mohali, Mumbai, Noida and Thiruvananthapuram, and its network of Authorised Training Centres (ATCs) across the country.