Large parts of youth from rural India have been victims of digital exclusion primarily because of lack of facilities and Digital Excellence Centres are set up to fill this gap and nurture their participation in the digital world.
Digital Excellence Centres are designed to serve various purposes, mainly centred around providing digital skills to people from all age groups and genders. The IT classes held at the centre provide training on softwares like MS office, under STEM Make2 initiative students are introduced to to hands on learning by tapping into their innovative thinking, Digital Green Prakriya Centre creates awareness about reuse and repair of electronic gadgets and the SoochnaPreneur centre provides the required information on central and state government welfare schemes.
The Digital Excellence Centre in Chanchalguda, Hyderabad also houses TASK (Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge) where coaching to attend competitive exams, soft skills training and job-oriented skills are imparted.
The centres have helped people like Fiza Ghouse who is a 22 year old B.Com graduate. She worked as a primary school teacher and earned 8,000 rupees per month. She wanted to pursue a computer course to improve knowledge in digital skills. She knew about the Digital Excellent Centre because of the campaign. She joined the course and was thrilled to know that it was free of cost. She learned to use MS Office, create Gmail accounts and the basics of computers then joined the TASK classes where she learned Java script. She has given an interview for the post of computer instructor in an Engineering college along with a demo on java. The college officials were satisfied with her java knowledge and digital skills. She has been selected as a computer instructor in the engineering college and earns Rs 12,000 per month now. She is happy and grateful for DEF and TASK.
Although Armaan Ali Khan’s father is a Software Engineer, because of unavailability of computer facilities in his school, he missed out on the digital skills. Through the Digital Excellence Centre, he has been able to learn different basic softwares and continues to enjoy visiting the centre.