Google on Thursday unveiled a new scholarship programme to create a pool of highly skilled tech workforce in India. The programme, started in association with online education firms Pluralsight and Udacity, aims to help 1,30,000 developers and students across the country.
Google said these scholarships would help developers gain access to advanced learning curriculum and further improve their employability in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality. The other areas include cloud computing and mobile and web development.
“This programme will make it easy for students and developers to gain the skills they need to be successful in the changing technology landscape,” said William Florance, developer products group and skilling lead for India, Google, in a statement.
Mountain View, California-based Google said this new programme is in continuation of its plans to train two million developers in the country. It said the aim is to help spur innovation and support the growth of India's start-up ecosystem. In the last one year, Google has already engaged with over half a million students and developers across the country through a variety of programmes and initiatives.
The company is offering 30,000 scholarships on Udacity. Among them, 1,000 developers will also be selected to receive full ‘Nanodegree’ scholarships, which aim to teach job-readiness skills. “Our collaboration with Google is a major step towards democratising education in India,” said Ishan Gupta, managing director, Udacity India.
Google is sponsoring one lakh scholarships on the Pluralsight. Interested candidates will also get access to Pluralsight IQ, where they can measure their skills in the latest technologies within five minutes. “India’s tech workforce is going through a phase of transition,” said Arun Rajamani, country head and general manager, Pluralsight.