IBM signs an agreement with All India Council Of Technical Education (AICTE) and Ministry of Education (MoE) with a vision of establishing industry relevant, technical job-role based training for students and faculty through the National Education Alliance for Technology (NEAT) 2.0 platform The program will offer skill based training courses on Cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI), IoT, Quantum Computing and Data Science.

The NEAT 2.0 project is a partnership between the AICTE and the Ministry of Education to provide the best technology courses to up skill youth and improve their employability.
IBM's Skills Academy, a world-class training and qualification curriculum designed to fill the skills gap of learners in colleges and universities around the world, will have six courses on the NEAT platform as part of the partnership.

Students and faculty will undergo hands-on instruction for a more immersive learning environment, with students receiving an IBM Digital Certification at the end of the course.

According to a recent IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) survey, roughly 30 percent of Gen Z and millennial working professionals expect to enroll in a formal degree, credential, or badge program in 2021.

IBM is collaborating with a number of government agencies from different sectors to integrate technical and vocational skills training into school curricula and to provide free digital education through a variety of initiatives. By 2030, the International Labour Organization predicts that India will have a capacity shortage of 29 million people.

“The NEAT 2.0 portal leverages technology to offer the best industry courses that give students adaptive and personalized learning, better learning outcomes and skills development in niche areas under a common platform. There’s a need to make pedagogical systems more learner-centric and we are bringing in industry experts like IBM, with their Skill Academy Courses, to deliver high-quality content to colleges and students. This initiative is big step towards developing high employability and entrepreneurship, leading to Aatmanirbhar Bharat and will bring revolutionary changes to online in India”, said Prof.Anil Dhattatraya Sahasrabudhe, Chairperson, AICTE.

IBM is collaborating with a number of government agencies from different sectors to integrate technical and vocational skills training into school curricula and to provide free digital education through a variety of initiatives.

Mona Bharadwaj, Global University Programs Leader, IBM India said, “With technology being the unifier and disruptor of business in the past decade, there has been an accelerated adoption of new-age technologies like Hybrid Cloud, AI, Analytics, quantum computing & IoT even as the demand-supply gap for technology skills continues to widen in India. Universities and colleges need to equip their students with 21st-century skill sets that will build career paths for a young workforce. Our engagement with AICTE is a key step forward in industry-academia collaboration that aims to improve the training and technical education opportunities of students across India and enhance employability.”