Education Minister launches SWAYAM Plus platform that offers employability focussed programmes

In alignment with NEP 2020, the SWAYAM Plus platform will now include courses supporting industry needs that enhance the learners' employability.

To offer employability and professional development-focused programmes in partnership with industry players, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday launched the SWAYAM Plus platform which will be operated by IIT-Madras.

"Working professionals to participate in the SWAYAM platform using it as a vehicle and take advantage of the multiple-entry-multiple-exit of NEP 2020. The platform will widen the scope of the classroom, adding 43 million students of higher education and working professionals," Pradhan said.

SWAYAM, the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform providing educational opportunities to a vast number of learners, was launched by the Union Ministry of Education in 2017 and had an enrolment of 72 lakh by the end of 2023.

In alignment with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the SWAYAM Plus platform will now include courses supporting industry needs that enhance the learners' employability.

Developed in collaboration with industry giants such as L&T, Microsoft, CISCO, and others, SWAYAM Plus features innovative elements such as multilingual content, AI-enabled guidance, credit recognition and pathways to employment.

According to Pradhan, SWAYAM Plus primarily focuses on building an ecosystem for all stakeholders in professional and career development, including learners, course providers, industry, academia and strategic partners.

He said, "The other objectives of the platform include enabling a mechanism that provides credit recognition for high-quality certifications and courses offered by the best industry and academia partners; reaching a large learner base by catering to learning across the country, with a focus on reaching learners from tiers 2 and 3 towns and rural areas and offering employment-focused courses based on learner needs -- across chosen disciplines with options to learn through resources in vernacular languages."

"SWAYAM Plus also envisions bringing in features such as access to mentorship, scholarships and job placements as value-added services in due course of time, thus building a digital ecosystem for learners to pursue upskilling and re-skilling at all levels, namely certificate, diploma or degree," he added.

Higher Education Secretary K Sanjay Murthy urged for greater participation from industry leaders and also subject matter experts from universities and institutions to contribute courses on separate verticals, which will be certified by IIT-Madras.