VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) has partnered with Thunderbird School of Global Management (Thunderbird), Arizona State University (ASU) to launch the Najafi 100 Million Learners Global Initiative across the State. The initiative is powered by Thunderbird, prominent with its distinguished faculty and reputation as the vanguard in global leadership and management education, and Arizona State University ranked No. 1 for innovation in the US for eight years.
The initiative offers online global education in 40 different languages at absolutely no cost to learners. Women, mostly young, account for 70% of the 100 million learners programme. It will be covered by full scholarship and, thus, is at no cost to learners because of the philanthropic support undergirding the initiative.
Thunderbird will offer three online educational programmes such as foundation, intermediate and advanced in Andhra Pradesh for personal and professional development with a special focus on entrepreneurship and innovation.
The first programme is designed for students of any formal educational level and is already available in English. The Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Bootcamp Foundational course of the global initiative is designed to promote the entrepreneurial and innovative spirt among learners. The advanced courses are mostly available in English now, and the intermediate programme will be available in the future.
“This is the most ambitious initiative for global education in the history of higher education. I thank APSSDC, our partners in Andhra Pradesh, for their commitment to transparently develop activities that benefit the business sector and the community in general in the State,” said Director General and Dean of Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University Sanjeev Khagram.
APSSDC MD and CEO Vinod Kumar said, “Our partnership with Thunderbird School of Global Management emphasises our commitment to empowering communities through knowledge.”