NEW DELHI: IBM on Friday announced its collaboration with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to offer a free digital education platform focused on emerging technologies and professional development skills.
As a part of the collaboration, IBM will curate online courses from Open P-Tech platform and offer it to users via NSDC's eSkill India portal to empower Indian youth on various skills to succeed in future careers.
IBM will provide online courses in emerging technologies like cybersecurity, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud and Internet of Things along with professional skills like design thinking to learners between 18 to 22 years for free.
Currently available in English, the platform will soon be available in various Indian languages -- starting with Hindi followed by 10 Indian languages including Kannada, Telegu, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Urdu, Bengali.
IBM will catalogue its 30-plus courses with over 60 hours of learning as a knowledge partner.
NSDC Managing Director and CEO Manish Kumar said the power of technology should be leveraged for reaching out to the youth with scale and quality.
"Online training through digital platforms need to be accelerated to overcome geographical and socio-economic barriers. Digital learning will enable higher participation of women in the labour workforce as the scope for employability will increase," he said.
"Overall, digital learning will boost the prospects of employment and livelihood for the youth."
Sandip Patel, Managing Director of IBM India and South Asia said as the pandemic is driving the digital transition to happen more quickly, there must be new forms of learning if we want to empower young learners with technical and market-related skills.
"Our collaboration with NSDC is a significant milestone to equip the next generation with digital skills," he said.
In the past, IBM has partnered with Directorate General of Training at the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Central Board of Secondary Education, NITI Aayog, State Department of Education and state skills missions to impact more than four lakh learners and students across 22 states through its education and skilling initiatives.