Salesforce to train 250,000 students for future tech jobs in India by 2022

Salesforce on Thursday said that it had committed to train 250,000 students for the technology jobs of tomorrow by 2022. In separate partnerships, the San Francisco-based customer-management software maker has signed memorandums of understanding (MoU) with the ICT Academy; the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) and ICT Academy of Kerala (ICTAK). Through these partnerships, Salesforce will bring Trailhead, its free online learning platform, into the classroom – empowering students to skill up through gamified learning content and hands-on challenges.

“Embracing India’s enviable workforce, we believe it is our responsibility to create jobs, reskill workers and help them succeed. As India becomes one of the youngest countries in the world, rapid innovation and adoption of emerging technologies such as IoT and AI are changing the ways we live and work,” said Sunil Jose, senior vice president and country leader, Salesforce India. “While companies embrace this change, there is a constant need for a savvy workforce that is prepared to tackle challenges unique to our digital age. We believe Trailhead can transform lives, nurture careers and make an impact on the growing Salesforce economy,” he said.

According to a recent study by research firm IDC, the Salesforce economy will create 548,400 direct jobs and $67 billion in new business revenues in India, between 2019 and 2024. With Trailhead, anyone – regardless of gender, ethnicity or socio-economic background – can build the skills they need to land an in-demand job in technology, both within and beyond the Salesforce ecosystem.

Salesforce will plan, create and execute each of these programmes for students, providing the support required to its partners for training to meet the programme objectives. In addition, the ‘train the trainer’ programme will support educators with relevant content to drive effective training, while also empowering them by building a strong networking group of industry experts. The company said it will also bring job recruitment opportunities to students trained on Salesforce to increase their employment opportunities.

“The opportunity that Salesforce offers is immense, the community is huge and growing exponentially,” said M Sivakumar, CEO, ICT Academy.

Shrikant Sinha, CEO, Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge said, "This partnership with Salesforce for the Trailhead platform will help in democratizing education for the rural youth in the state.”