Google to train 2 million Indian Android developers
Mon 11 Jul 2016
Google has announced its new “Android Fundamentals” training program, which aims to train and certify up to two million Android developers in India. An Android Fundamentals training course, soon to be available online and at schools country-wide, is focused on training, testing and certifying Android developers to prepare students for careers using Android technology.
A student-directed online version of the Android Fundamentals training course will be made available free of charge through NTPEL, a coalition of seven Indian technology colleges that offers online courses. Instructor-led courses will also be available throughout the country through private and public universities, as well as at training institutes of the National Skill Development Corporation of India. The instructor-led courses will be integrated into the existing course framework and will be available this year at no additional charge.
Google is currently working to update the skills of its existing trainers to prepare them to teach the Android Fundamentals course, as well as updating course materials to provide students a solid foundation in Android development.
This new program works with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Skill India’ initiative, launched in 2015 with the intent of training 400 million Indian citizens with new vocational skills by 2022. Once the Android Fundamentals course is completed, students may sit an exam to help successful candidates begin their career as developers by granting an ‘Associate Android Developer Certification’ for those who receive good marks on the exam.
Caesar Sengupta, VP Product Management for Google, told reporters that while India is primed to have the largest developer population in the world by 2018, with almost four million developers, only 25% of them are currently building for mobile. He pointed out that India is uniquely placed to drive the experience of people who will use the mobile platform worldwide. “By building a world class curriculum and making it easily accessible to millions of students and developers in India, we want to contribute to the Skill India initiative and help make India the global leader in mobile app development.”
In addition to contributing to the government’s Skill India initiative, Google’s Android Certification program will allow them to leverage partnerships with Indian companies such as Edureka, Simplilearn, and UpGrad, who will provide support as Authorised Android Training Partners.
The online version of the Android Fundamentals course will be available free of charge on July 18, 2016 through NPTEL schools.
