The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic (AVGC) Promotion Task Force announced that it has certified over 15,000 trainers, skilled 500 master trainers, and approved 28 AVGC qualifications from the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), in a followup meeting on Tuesday since its recommendations to the government in December last year. “Currently, over 300 universities and colleges offer AVGC courses to students and the task force has set up 700 centres for training across India,” Atul Kumar Tiwari, secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE), said while addressing the first National Workshop and Consultation on Draft AVGC Policies at Vigyan Bhawan.
The officials announced that the AVGC Task Force under the aegis of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has collaborated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for capacity building of teachers to ensure implementation of AVGC recommendation. CBSE already offers three courses related to AVGC on Animation, Texturing and Mass Media and five more courses are slated to be introduced at the school level, officials said.
Furthermore, seven degree programmes at higher education level aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 have been introduced by the Task Force while four new programmes are in the process to be launched soon, Tiwari said. He added that Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) related to the AVGC sector are now available for students in several universities. In addition, an announcement for implementation of University Grants Commission (UGC) approved work integrated degree courses will be made soon.
The Task Force officials further announced that it is in talks with foreign countries for technical corporate programmes. The aim is to help Indian students gain relevant skills and make them employable globally. Under the Skill India Digital initiative the Task Force plans to prepare a platform for students to provide counselling on career options in the AVGC sector.
“The AVGC sector in India is worth about $5 billion. But when we look at the international scale, gaming alone is more than $300 billion and animation and visual effects is another $100 billion,”Apurva Chandra, Secretary, I&B, said. He added that India is poised to capture the AVGC market internationally and steps are being taken towards achieving the goal.
Meanwhile, the Task Force has also invited stakeholders from the industry to collaborate on initiatives to train students. Officials announced to provide fund support to set up Incubation Centres, Centre of Excellence, across educational institutions to train students in the AVGC sector.