Karnataka government to train women who’ve taken career breaks in semiconductor industry

The Karnataka government will train 90 women in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in the State, who have taken sabbatical for various reasons, in VLSI design and embedded software, skills sought after by the semiconductor industry.

To take this effort forward, the Electronics Sector Skills Council (ESSCI), a State government outfit, has entered into an MoU with Marvell Marvell Semiconductor on Wednesday.

Minister for IT and BT Priyank Kharge said this training programme was mostly designed for women who have taken a career break and still want to get back to work after a sabbatical.

“We have always given top priority to skilling programmes to build a future-ready workforce. It is also our endeavour to help women who took career breaks to be industry-and technology-ready so that they can return to work,” Mr. Kharge said, while addressing a media conference at Bengaluru Technology Summit here on Wednesday.

The initiative supported Karnataka’s mission to boost women’s participation in deep-tech sectors. It also strengthens the State’s semiconductor talent pipeline in alignment with India’s growing chip ecosystem, he said.

Also, under the NIPUNA Karnataka, a State government initiative to skill over 4,000 youth in collaboration with leading corporate partners, the government has approved skill-development training by four skilling aggregators in partnership with potential employers including Capgemini, Wells Fargo, Standard Chartered, and Sumeru.

The NIPUNA was targeted for providing training in high-demand fields, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and data science. Over 2,800 job opportunities were expected as part of this mission, the Minister said.

According to the Minister, the NIPUNA Karnataka is rapidly gaining national attention as a powerful collaborative model where corporates and skilling aggregators work hand-in-hand to shape the next generation workforce. This momentum has already encouraged several major employers across IT, ESDM, Biotech, and BFSI sectors to submit expressions of interest jointly with their skilling partners to skill an additional 10,000 youth, with the aspiration of enabling 7,000 more jobs across the State.