IBM to offer free digital training to Indian youth with National Skill Development Corporation
IT service major, IBM has announced a partnership with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to offer free digital education. The IT service firm wants to focus on emerging technologies and professional development skills.
As per collaboration, IBM will curate online courses from Open P-Tech platform. The users can train themselves on various skills using NSDC’s eSkill India portal. The idea behind the platform is to teach various skills to Indian youth.
The company will also provide online courses in emerging technologies such as cybersecurity, blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, cloud, and internet of things (IoT). The course is designed for learners in the age group of 18 to 22 years of age. The course curriculum is currently available only in English. IBM plans to make it available in various Indian languages starting with Hindi and then Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Urdu, and Bengali.
NSDC Managing Director (MD) and CEO Manish Kumar said, “As NSDC’s knowledge partner, IBM will catalog its 30-plus courses, offering over 60 hours of learning. Online training through digital platforms need to be accelerated to overcome geographical and socio-economic barriers. Digital learning will enable higher participation of women in the labour workforce as the scope for employability will increase.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, there is a massive demand for digitization services. Collaboration with NSDC is a significant milestone to equip youth with digital skills.
In the past, IBM has partnered with Directorate General of Training at the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Central Board of Secondary Education, NITI Aayog, State Department of Education and state skills missions to impact more than four lakh learners and students across 22 states through its education and skilling initiatives.
