IBM launches initiative in tech education

IBM has launched an initiative to collaborate with educators in teaching students the open standards skills necessary to compete and keep pace with changes at the unfolding IT workplace.

Through the initiative, IBM hopes to reach out to over 300 institutes in India, training over 75,000 students in IBM and open standards-based technologies by the end of the year.

According to an IBM release, this programme offers a wide range of technology education benefits which can scale up to meet the growing demand for skilled professionals in the country.

IBM will work with universities that support open standards, working both directly and virtually via. the Web. A flexible fee structure, from free to paying, will be used.

Universities piloting the academic initiative in India include Department of Management Studies and Department of Computer Sciences, IIT Delhi, School of Information Technology, Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Regional Engineering College, Durgapur, DAV Institute of Engineering & Technology, Ludhiana, Thiyagaraja College of Engineering, Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, Kongu Engineering College, Coimbatore and Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka.

"As businesses innovate with new technologies for competitive advantage, companies and universities need to make a greater commitment to fill the skill pipeline to feed the new disciplines," said Shanker Annaswamy, managing director, IBM India.

"There will be increased demand for high-value, high-paying jobs which require a multi-disciplinary skillset of computer services and line-of-business insight. Our goal is to help universities teach millions of students in-demand skills for an on-demand world."

It is estimated that approximately 2.5 lakh IT students graduate every year, while the projected demand for trained IT professionals is over 4 lakh per year.

Nasscom estimates that India will have to educate at least 2 million additional knowledge workers over the next 8 years, if India's IT software and services sector is to achieve an annual revenue of $70-80 billion in 2008.