IBM and Nasscom train about 5,000 students, make them employment ready

IBM and Nasscom Foundation worked with 23 colleges across various states to teach certify students with emerging technology courses; over 2,000 students get jobs

In an attempt to bridge the skill-gap between the students and industry, IBM and The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) have provided, about 5,000 underserved students across Karnataka, Telangana and Delhi-NCR, skills in Data Science and Cloud computing. Over 2,000 of them bagged jobs through the program that is aimed at making India's youth future ready.

As part of IBM's SkillsBuild career readiness program, IBM and Nasscom Foundation worked with 23 colleges to certify enrolled students on IBM-certified courses on emerging technologies including Data science and Cloud computing in 2019. This program engaged students with an on-campus, 250 hour-long blended training model that uses online and face-to-face training to build skills in new-age technologies.

Subsequently, the program pivoted into a completely online mode of education and learning due to Covid-based restrictions in 2020. Students from 23 Tier-2 and Tier-3 non-technical institutions were trained by partners TMI and iPrimed. The colleges chosen for the program included Vijaya Evening College, East Point College, Vidya Vahini College, Vivekanand Degree College, Karnataka college Dharwad, Siddaganga College, KSS Arts, Science and Commerce College, Siddhaganga Women's College. Several other colleges in Dharwar, Bhagalkot, Gadag, Koppal, Nargund, Bangalore, and Tumkur in Karnataka and Faridabad in Haryana were also a part of the program.

Manoj Balachandran, Leader, Corporate Social Responsibility, IBM India-South Asia said, "Aligned to the Skill India mission, IBM is committed to bridging the skills gap by working with an ecosystem of industry partners, academia and government to provide professional and technical skills to students and teachers. As the industry leader in emerging technologies, we consider it our responsibility to leverage that technical expertise in making skills training accessible to every learner across the country."

After the training, IBM and Nasscom Foundation, in association with training partners, have been conducting placement drives across the country and have already placed over 2,000 students in leading technology organizations despite the challenges caused by the pandemic.

Nidhi Bhasin, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation, commenting on the completion of the program, said, "The Future is blended learning – be it a combination between face-to-face and online/digital mode or between structured curriculum and skills based or applications based learning, or a fantastic combination between all these. Despite the challenges during the ongoing COVID pandemic, NASSCOM Foundation is proud to work with IBM on this initiative.”