Google today launched the Android Skilling program in India that will aim to train two million mobile developers by unveiling a slew of initiatives to skill up, educate, and certify millions of students and developers in Android Development
Recognizing the need to provide an in-person training course targeted at students in universities, Google announced the launch of a specially designed instructor led training program on Android Fundamentals. This will be made available across public and private universities and training institutes of the National Skill Development Corporation of India. The in-person training module integrated into the course curriculum will be introduced within this calendar year at no additional fee.
The Android Fundamentals course will also be available, free of charge, on NPTEL (an initiative of the IITs and IISc) as part of its online Mobile Computing course starting 18th July 2016.
Additionally, Google has tied up with training partners like Edureka, Koenig, Manipal Global, Simplilearn, Udacity and UpGrad who will operate as Authorized Android Training Partners in India. Google will train their trainers and to update their Android courseware to prepare students for the Android Certification and a career in Android development.
Speaking at the launch, Caesar Sengupta, VP, Product Management at Google said, “India is expected to have the largest developer population globally, overtaking the US, by 2018, with four million developers. But today only 25% of developers are building for mobile. We believe India is uniquely placed to innovate and shape the Internet experience of billions of users who are and will come online on the mobile platform. 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.”
Google also announced the launch of its globally recognised job-oriented Associate Android Developer Certification—a performance-based exam that will help successful candidates to get an entry-level Android Developer jobs in the Industry. After training, aspiring candidates can log on to the Google Developer training website and take the certification exam priced at INR 6,500/-.
Sharing more details about the program, Peter Lubbers, Head of Google Developer Training said, “We introduced the Android Nanodegree program in India last year with Udacity, and today, we have over 11,500 students in India enrolling every month in our Android courses. For university students we have now—for the first time—introduced a instructor led Android Fundamentals course to be incorporated into university curricula in India”
“We also realise that India has a huge base of developers seeking opportunities for employment. And for that, we are introducing a globally recognised, job-oriented Google Developer Certification. The certification sets a benchmark for the industry to evaluate developer capabilities and is mapped to an actual job already in the industry, as determined by job task analyses.” he added.
In addition to partnering with Universities, NPTEL and industry training partners, Google will also open-source all Android Developer Fundamentals practicals and courseware and make these available to everyone for free.