Karnataka Govt Partners With IBM For Smarter Employability Platform

The Karnataka Vocational Training and Skill Development Corporation (KVTSDC), associated with the state’s Department of Labour, has announced that it has partnered with IBM to develop a Smarter Employability Platform to increase effectiveness of employment and skill-enhancement programmes in the state. Through this first-of-a-kind (FOAK) project with IBM Research - India, KVTSDC will address the challenges of reaching millions of potentially employable individuals and empowering them, especially in rural areas and in the unorganised sector.

As part of this project, IBM will create a platform to effectively connect job-seekers and job-providers along with training and certification agencies in employability marketplaces accessible through mobile phones in local and vernacular languages. Job-seekers will thus be able to find available jobs and apply for the same, while understanding job-trends, and also refer opportunities to their friends: all through mobile phones. Similarly job providers can post jobs, increase their reach, find matching candidates, connect with trainers, and track latest trends through both mobile phones and web channels.

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KVTSDC will be able to increase the penetration of its programmes, enable a vibrant ecosystem and track the latest employment trends.

The project will leverage several technologies from IBM, including Spoken Web – a voice-based equivalent of the World Wide Web designed to provide information of value to rural and semi-urban people through their mobiles or landlines in local languages. A mobile crowd-sourcing-platform will enable people to offer opportunities to each other, provide referrals, and drive rapid dissemination of available opportunities.

Additionally, skill-matching-techniques will be used to match job-seekers with available jobs while employability analytics will allow employers and the government to understand demand and supply trends. The employability marketplace will run on the IBM Cloud providing a pay-as-you-go model and elastic scaling.

“The Karnataka state government is a pioneer in skill development in the country. Our goal is to enhance employment opportunities in the state by creating a conducive environment for all the stakeholders. This Smarter Employability Platform will help us expand our horizon and reach people in the remotest parts of Karnataka enabling them to have an access to all the information through mobile phones, by using the local languages,” said Dr. Vishnukanth Chatpalli, Executive Director, KVTSDC.

“We are glad that IBM, one of the largest technology companies in the world, has partnered with us in this first of its kind endeavour,” added Dr Chatpalli. As the first phase of the proposed project, the Smarter Employability Platform will be implemented in the two districts of Mandya and Bijapur. It will be expanded to eight more districts within Karnataka in the second phase.

“IBM’s vision is to be a key enabler of India’s rural transformation, economic uplift, and business growth by establishing viable business models, creating a sustainable ecosystem, and bringing innovative technologies to bridge the digital divide. By working with KVTSDC we hope to benefit a large section of the society and help build a smarter nation,” said Dr. Manish Gupta, Director, IBM Research – India, and Chief Technologist, IBM India/South Asia.