In a bid to facilitate employment opportunities for the youth of Punjab and enhance their skills and competence according to global needs, the Punjab Skill Development Mission (PSDM) has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft to ingrain essential skills in at least 10,000 youths of the state in a year.

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The MoU was signed by Director PSDM Amrit Singh and Country Head Education, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd, Sanjay Dhingra, here on Friday.

Congratulating the whole department for achieving another milestone, Punjab Employment Generation, Skill Development, and Training Minister Aman Arora said, "This collaboration will pave the way to inculcate skills in 10,000 youths in Punjab with essential digital productivity skills, employability skills, English communication skills, entrepreneurship skills, and technology skills, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), cyber security, and sustainability."

"The department has not been leaving any stone unturned to facilitate employment opportunities for the youth of Punjab," he reiterated.

Elaborating on the collaboration, Amrit Singh said, "The comprehensive future skills collaboration with Microsoft for 2024-25 includes multiple targeted initiatives designed to address the specific needs of diverse learners catered by PSDM, aiming to enhance their skills and competence according to global needs and provide them with employment opportunities in an AI-enabled economy for better livelihoods."

She also emphasised that the Department of Employment Generation, Skill Development and Training is determined to cater to the manpower requirements of the industry by providing skilled youth from Punjab.

"More MoUs will be signed with other companies in the near future," she added.

The key aspects of the collaboration include foundational digital, employability, and AI fluency skills for 10,000 rural youth, young women, girls, and persons with disabilities to improve their workforce participation rate.

It also includes in-demand and industry-relevant digital skills for jobseekers registered with the Department of Employment Generation linked to entry-level AI-enabled jobs.

Among other things, it also had awareness and in-depth training programmes on cloud, AI, security, and sustainability (green skills) through trainers for students in technical and vocational education institutions, enabling in-demand career roles.