IIT Kharagpur to Launch Healthcare Training for Rural Youth This November

Rapid Summary

• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur will launch the “School for Skills: Healthcare & Technology” on its campus in west Bengal.
• The initiative aims to train rural and semi-urban youth in healthcare through short-term certificate courses,starting November 2025.
• The facility will initially accommodate 150 students annually and offer courses aligned with the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF), such as general duty assistant, emergency medical technician (basic), and phlebotomist training.
• Thes programmes are affiliated with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under India’s Ministry of Skill Development and entrepreneurship. Certification will be issued by the Healthcare Sector Skill Council upon completion.
• Trainees will support patient care at IIT Kharagpur’s Syama Prasad Mukherjee Super-Speciality Hospital and other healthcare institutions after completing their training.
• Suman Chakraborty, director of IIT Kharagpur, emphasized that this initiative blends skill development with technology to address rural healthcare issues while promoting inclusive growth.

!Image: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur in West bengal launches “School for Skills”

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Indian Opinion Analysis
The launch of IIT Kharagpur’s “School for Skills: Healthcare & Technology” represents a notable step towards addressing skill gaps in India’s healthcare sector, especially in rural regions where trained personnel often remain scarce. By integrating skill development with advanced technology, this program has the potential to bridge systemic disparities in healthcare accessibility while equipping young people from rural areas with market-ready skills that align with national qualifications standards.Affiliating these initiatives under NSDC ensures alignment with national policies on employment generation, underscoring a push from academic institutions towards contributing directly to workforce building efforts outside conventional degree paths. More importantly,routing trained professionals into facilities like their own hospital reinforces local systems while focusing on scalable impacts nationwide.

This initiative coudl serve as a model for fostering regional self-reliance by combining institutional expertise within academia alongside state-supported frameworks aimed at inclusive growth-a priority essential as India works toward enduring progress across economic and social dimensions.