IBM and National Skill Development Corporation collaborate to give free digital education

IBM and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) on Friday joined hands 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 the 'Open P-TECH' platform and offer them to users via NSDC's eSkill India portal to empower the country's youth with various skills to succeed in their future careers.

"Under the partnership, IBM will catalogue its 30 plus Open P-TECH courses on eSkill India portal, with over 60 hours of learning, as a knowledge partner," a release said. IBM will provide online courses in emerging technologies like Cyber Security, Blockchain, AI and Machine Learning, Cloud, Internet of Things, along with professional skills, like Design Thinking to learners between 18 to 22 years for free, the release added. eSkill India is a digital skilling initiative from NSDC that aggregates digital learning resources through various Indian and global knowledge partnerships, to enable access to best-in-class learning resources for the India youth.

"Digital learning will enable higher participation of women in the labour workforce as the scope for employability will increase. Overall, digital learning will boost prospects of employment and livelihood for the youth," NSDC MD and CEO Manish Kumar said. IBM India/South Asia Managing Director Sandip Patel said the Open P-TECH platform will make foundational learning in emerging technology and professional skills for the youth more accessible. "Aligned to the country's Skill India mission, we are taking another step in the evolution of our digital education approach to help the next generation of professionals have the exciting future they deserve," Patel said.