Auto Skilling in India Demands Strong Curriculum Correction, Says ASDC CEO

As software and electronics reshape the automobile industry, the Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC) is racing to prepare the workforce for this fast-changing landscape. Speaking at the Autocar Professional Vehicle Lightweighting Conference 2025, CEO Arindam Lahiri stressed the need to modernise engineering education and training to meet the industry's shifting demands, from AI-based diagnostics to working with new vehicle software.

Supported by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA), Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), and backed by the Government of India through the Department of Heavy Industry and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), ASDC has built a strong training infrastructure. It currently works with over 95 training partners, manages more than 202 training centres, has facilitated over 2.14 lakh apprenticeship contracts, and certified nearly 300 trainers.

Lahiri highlighted the two most pressing issues in the current skilling ecosystem. “Unfortunately, in our entire engineering education space, the learning even today is very heavily compartmentalized with very little cross exposure happening to the students in terms of learning the skills from the other domains.”

In the second point, he emphasized that today’s engineers must understand far more than traditional mechanical systems. “If we look at a basic engineering program or a course like strength of materials... the focus is on repeating what is already being used in the industry. While that is important, there needs to be a window in the curriculum where there is an opportunity for the faculty to introduce alternate materials, alternate designs, alternate processes — maybe a bit different. Again, unfortunately, the curriculum flexibility in the system is quite low," Lahiri pointed out.

ASDC is working with higher education institutions to introduce short-duration elective programs for pre-final and final-year students to "give them an opportunity or a flavor of what real-life work in the industry is like,” as Lahiri said.

Challenges in Skilling for Software Use

As vehicle platforms evolve from mechanical to electromechanical and now increasingly software-defined systems, Lahiri mentioned a new layer of complexity in vehicle servicing and diagnostics. “We do have our share of struggle on the mechanical side of things, but that's pretty sorted." "The challenge comes," he said, "the moment we move to the electronic and software elements... which entails a whole new effort on the part of the entire industry to be able to upskill the existing service technicians and, at the same time, also focus on the new blue-collar workers.”

AI and Skills

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Lahiri believes, is set to be a game-changer in vehicle design, simulation, diagnostics, and even after-sales service. “AI will become a very underlying culture. As far as AI in this whole design process is concerned, a lot of the work — the speed with which you can turn around new designs, testing, simulation, etc. — is going to get very heavily impacted."

AI-led troubleshooting may eventually reduce the need for human-led diagnosis, Lahiri said. “Today, a lot of troubleshooting depends on the skill of the technician. However, I'm sure people are already working on AI applications that allow platforms to do a lot of machine-based troubleshooting in vehicles."

Contrary to fears that AI may eliminate jobs, Lahiri said he sees it as a shift rather than a reduction. “In terms of the number of jobs, I would disagree that the number is going to go away... It's going to be much more in many other new areas, such as analytics."

On government policies, Lahiri expressed optimism about the progress India has made in integrating skilling, education, and lifelong learning. “We have a national skilling framework policy which eventually allows seamless integration between individuals and skills. The focus is on flexibility, collaboration, and integration.”

Lahiri also outlined a layered approach to AI skilling, which is: AI for all, AI for many, and AI for few. "This kind of segmentation and focus, I think, is going to be very useful in the long term in the Indian ecosystem," he added.