DIT trains workforce with e-Governance Training & Certification Programme

Improvement in the workforce skill-set with the comprehensive e-learning and certification programme in e-Governance in India
- Preeti Gaur

Directorate of Information Technology is a State Government Department that drives and implements IT projects in the state. DIT leads various government departments in Maharashtra, for creating a better IT infrastructure and user-friendly citizen services.
Challenges
It was a huge challenge to educate Government staff and the consultants working with the State Government about the various facets and applications of e-Governance.

Project Head: Rajesh Aggarwal

Rajesh Aggarwal IAS,
Ex-Secretary (IT), Government of Maharashtra,
Currently Joint Secretary (Financial Services) at Government of India, Delhi

Projects teams which comprised Software developers and Consultants were unaware about some of the basic developments, standards and guidelines defined in the State. As a result, some of the State IT projects were not yielding the desired results. It was imperative to provide a skill development platform to DIT staff, consultants and developers in order to ensure successful implementation of all e-Governance projects taken up by the state. This propelled DIT to introduce the first of its kind e-Governance Online Certification Exam to check an individual’s skills and enhance knowledge in e-Governance domain.
The Implementation
A study was done focusing on creating a good question bank and reading material. Then the project team explored various globally available Online Test making tools. After doing a cost-benefit analysis for top 10 online test designing tools, it was decided to use ‘Classmarker’.
The whole process from user registration to the final certificate generation has been automated. Marks are automatically pulled from Classmarker database and inserted in the user’s dashboard at each stage.
The course website contains the reading material and links of important sites. Apart from that, links for additional reading material are mentioned in the online question paper.
Bulk emails and SMSs are used to send communications and OTPs (for registration and login) to interested users. Interviews are conducted either telephonically or over video conferencing).
The Result
More than 5000 registered users have taken the certification programme, out of which 527 candidates have been certified. The consultants working with State Government of Maharashtra are all certified under this programme. The skillset of IT Consultants/Department Staff working with the State Government has also improved.