Ramesh Sippy,  veteran filmmaker and chairman of Media and Entertainment Skills Council (MESC) has announced future expansion plans and key initiatives for the skill ecosystem in the line of M & E industry.

Addressing journalists at the Press Club, New Delhi, on Tuesday, Ramesh Sippy said as per reports our industry is the fastest-growing industry in the world and is projected to reach the $100-billion mark by 2030. India’s gamer base is expected to touch 700 million by 2025.

“With the boom coming for AVGC there is no reason why India cannot be a world contender in building the metaverse. For this huge billion-dollar market, we need to prepare talented youths by skilling, up-skilling, and re-skilling as per the latest requirements, technology, platform, and audience. This shows a lot more opportunities coming up for the youth,” he added.

Sippy emphasised that the skilling programme should be started from school level to higher education for creating a talent pool for the M&E.

The Media & Entertainment Skills Council is going to start media and entertainment courses from school to post graduate level as per the NEP-2020 aligned with NSQF, revealed Mr. Sippy, Chairman MESC.

The MESC collaborated with various colleges and universities in India and Abroad. It entered an MoU with CBSE to extend expertise and contribute towards the students and society at large with specific focus on the skill development, education, and training of teachers for the M&E Sector.

“We have started a principal orientation programme; training of teachers (ToT) across the country.” He informed that the MESC will cater to various categories of teachers and trainers for up-skilling at schools, vocational centers, industry, universities and colleges. The MESC envisages training for trainers for 25,000+ candidates within a two years span.” He further added.

Furthermore, Sippy added, “We also launched India’s first and the largest creative and aptitude test MECAT (Media and Entertainment Creative Aptitude Test) which is a standardised test that assesses students’ personality, aptitude and creative skills. MECAT will be able to provide the assessment and understanding of a person’s strength areas. This shall help the candidates decide the best for themselves whether in terms of program or the institute thus enabling better opportunities for the future while using the inner strength areas.

MECAT Junior (MECAT Jr.) is also launched to help schools, teachers, and parents identify the strengths and the areas of competence of children in preschool and elementary school which allow them to tailor their education and uncover hidden potential.

“We’re glad that the UT of Ladakh is soon going to conduct MECAT for the youth and MECAT Jr. for the school candidates of the region.”

Mohit Soni, Chief Executive officer, congratulated the winners of WorldSkills Special Edition 2022. He informed thar Steven Harris R (Graphic Design Technology) and Abhinav Verma (3D Digital Game Art) won Medallion of Excellence at WorldSkills Special Edition 2022, the biggest platform of Skills.

He informed that the MESC is also associated with various other international competitions like London international Creative competition, Tokyo Integrational foto award and many more to provide more platforms to the youth of the country.

He mentioned about the Job fairs being organised by the MESC nationwide to showcase lucrative job opportunities available for employability and entrepreneurship in the media and entertainment industry. Employers like Red Chillies Entertainment, Lakshay Digital, Botvfx, Kraft Creations, Creative splash, Getafixx, Pixel D Studios, rgba studios, pixxzoo studios and many are participating in the job fairs. MESC is also planning a mega job fair which will be organized in various cities on the same day and expected to employ thousands of candidates.

MESC also urged the industry to spend their CSR budget for the skilling ecosystem and employment of the youth.