ATAL Academy Dedicated to Faculty Development

The record for the maximum faculty training certificates issued in a single year by a technical council was set by AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy, New Delhi. A total number of 1,34,942 faculty training certificates were issued by conducting 1,476 Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs), starting from May 12, 2021 and ending on December 31, 2021.

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in its endeavour to encourage academic excellence in technical education has taken several quality initiatives which also include enhanced impetus on the development of the faculty teaching in colleges across the country.

The AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy is one such initiative that has been conducting various Faculty Development Programs for imparting and upgrading faculty knowledge in emerging thrust areas like Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, Blockchain, renewable energy, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), etc.

ATAL Academy also collaborated and invited experts from various leading corporates such as ARM India, Cadence Design Systems, Adobe, Ford Motors, Google, Amazon, Metaverse, Tata Energy, LinkedIn, TCS, Wipro, Infosys, etc., and launched ‘Tech Saksham’ program with Microsoft and SAP.

Mamta R Agarwal, Adviser-1, ATAL Academy, says, “Given the unprecedented COVID-19 backdrop, this year more than 1500 scheduled Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs) in various emerging areas were conducted in online mode. Peer Review and comparative learning curves have been some of the methods to assess the effectiveness of the ATAL Faculty Development Programmes.”By 31st December 2021, 1476 Faculty Development Programmes were conducted with 2,26,721 registered participants and 1,34,942 certified participants. The AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy has been recognized and conferred awards by the World Book of Records, London for outstanding contribution to faculty Development.

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was set up in November 1945 as a national level apex advisory body to conduct a survey on the facilities available for technical education and to promote development in the country in a coordinated and integrated manner.

The AICTE Act was constituted to provide for the establishment of an All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with a view to proper planning and coordinated development of a technical education system throughout the country, the promotion of qualitative improvements of such education in relation to planned quantitative growth, and regulation and proper maintenance of norms and standards in the technical education system and for the matters connected therewith.

The main objective of ATAL academies is to plan and help in imparting quality technical education in the country and to support technical institutions in fostering research, innovation and entrepreneurship through training in various emerging areas.