New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS): The Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) on Monday joined Chinese conglomerate Huawei to inaugurate a Centre of Excellence at NIT Patna for capacity building in the telecom sector under the aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).

The MoU, signed for a period of five years, is aimed at the skilling and upskilling of students to enhance their employability through training in innovative technologies, including finding potential sponsoring agencies for developing the suitable infrastructure at NIT Patna.

"TSSC is fulfilling the need of the hour by creating high-end skill centres to cater to demand from the youth. We need more industry-aligned training to empower our youth with advanced skills like 5G and IoT," senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

TSSC will provide training content, network of training partners and industry connect and institutionalise accreditation process for training providers, assessment and certification of assessors, trainers and trainees.

The centre will also serve as a facility for industrial training for B.Tech/Diploma/ Certificate courses. Once the period of the MoU is over, the centre will be handed over to NIT Patna.

"Huawei will be a strategic partner who will help us align with the future demands of the industry and NIT Patna will provide the crucible for the transformation of the students," TSSC CEO Arvind Bali said.

Huawei India Executive Director, Harsh Khurana said that the country has immense potential to develop quality skilled workers and TSSC has a proven history for finding prime movers in the ecosystem.

"We chose a futuristic technology like IoT taking into consideration the growth potential of IoT with projects like NDCP and smart cities India," he added.