Punjab’s Technical Education and Industrial Training Department has started electric vehicle mechanic courses at eight Industrial Training Institutes, reported The Tribune on Tuesday.
According to the newspaper, the move anticipates future demand for EV service technicians following the center’s push for clean transportation.
The course is already catching the students’ attention during the ongoing admission session at the government-run ITIs.
The department has reserved 384 seats for the course at the eight designated institutes.
“The focus is on industry-driven courses and preparing students for radically changed skill sets. With this in mind, we are striving to make the ITIs resource centers for providing an industry-relevant skilled workforce to various trades,” said Amit Talwar, director of the Technical Education Department.
The department is associating with vehicle manufacturers like Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki to invest in infrastructure upgrading at the ITIs under the central government scheme to skill youth in collaboration with the industry.
Through the scheme announced in the Union Budget this year, the department is eyeing ₹8 crore infrastructure push from the electric vehicle manufacturers.
“The focus is on the outcome and quality of skilling, with course content and design aligned to the needs of the industry. The center is working on creating a favorable regulatory framework to support EV innovation and development of electric vehicles; the demand for skilled EV technicians is set to increase in the future”, said officials handling the project in the department.
Officials cited data showing that the EV industry is expected to create around 20 million jobs by 2030, increasing the demand for in-house specialists such as EV technicians. The demand for EV-related skills would increase by about 40 percent.
The EV technician course is among 31 new courses introduced in selected 20 during the current academic session.
Other courses include solar technician, multimedia animation effects technician, fiber-to-home technician, smartphone technician-cum-app tester, drone service technician, radiology technician, 5G technician, system architect, additive manufacturing technician, and industrial robotics technician.
