The board that guides Smartskills.

Shri Pawan Agrawal

Pawan Agrawal founded Bits & Bytes Computers in Raipur in August 1991 and has led it ever since, through its growth into Smartskills Bits & Bytes (P) Ltd. An Electronics & Telecommunication engineering graduate, he has more than three decades of experience building and managing enterprises in education, training, placement, counselling and advisory services.

Under his leadership the company became one of the first three private Vocational Training Providers in Chhattisgarh in 2010. It became an NSDC Approved Training Partner in 2015 and the only Logistics Sector Skill Council partner in the state. Since then it has implemented DDU-GKY, PMKVY, DAY-NULM and PMAY-G projects across several states, and trained over 1.8 lakh aspirants.

He personally led IT training for about 10,000 employees of 200 organisations, including L&T, Grasim, IOCL, Reliance, SBI and Central Bank of India. He also led the company's Joint Business Relationship partnerships with PwC and KPMG on government advisory projects. As knowledge partner to ASSOCHAM he presented the report Opportunities & Challenges in Skilling in Uttar Pradesh and delivered the keynote at the National Conference on Skill Development in Lucknow in 2017. After COVID-19, the Ministry of Rural Development (DDU-GKY), the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (DAY-NULM) and ASSOCHAM sought his views on the future of skilling.

He regularly counsels trainees and their parents himself, especially first-generation job seekers moving out of their home state for work.