Tech giant IBM on Friday announced a collaboration with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to offer free digital training in emerging technologies like cybersecurity, Blockchain, AI and ML, Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) to boost employment and livelihood for the youth in the country.
Called open P-TECH’, the free digital education platform is focused on emerging technologies and professional development skills.
IBM will curate online courses from Open P-TECH platform and offer it to users via NSDC’s eSkill India portal, it said in a statement.
“Online training through digital platforms like Open P-TECH and eSkill India needs to be accelerated to overcome geographical and socio-economic barriers. Digital learning will enable higher participation of women in the labor workforce as the scope for employability will increase,” commented Dr. Manish Kumar, MD, and CEO, NSDC.
Under the partnership, IBM will catalog its over 30 Open P-TECH courses on the eSkill India portal, with more than 60 hours of learning.
IBM will provide online courses in emerging technologies, along with professional skills like ‘Design Thinking’ to learners between 18-22 age groups for free.
“Our collaboration with NSDC is a significant milestone to equip the next generation with digital skills. Open P-TECH will make foundational learning in emerging technology and professional skills for the youth more accessible,” said Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India/South Asia.
eSkill India is a digital skilling initiative from NSDC that aggregates digital learning resources through various Indian and global knowledge partnerships.
Currently, over 16 lakh minutes of digital courses and content is available across various sectors on the platform.
Launched in March this year, the Open P-TECH platform aims to equip learners and educators with foundational technology competencies, along with workplace learning skills.
Currently available in English, the platform will soon be available in various languages starting with Hindi, followed by 10 languages including Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Urdu and Bengali.
