IBM Opens CoEs at 3 Colleges in MP to Develop Software Skills
IT News Online Staff
2009-09-03
IBM has announced new and extended collaboration with three engineering and technology colleges in the state of Madhya Pradesh to provide a platform for development of software skills among the students.
The collaboration has brought the establishment of a series of IBM Centers of Excellence (CoE), creating an opportunity for students to learn new skill sets on IBM software products - DB2, WebSphere, Lotus, Rational and Tivoli, as well as develop world-class business solutions.
The CoEs were launched at Government College Jabalpur, Shri Vaishnav Institute of Technology and Science (SVITS), Indore and Mahakal Institute of Technology (MIT), Ujjain.
IBM said it will follow a two-pronged approach, providing the colleges with access to technologies relevant to the market, while ensuring the right skills are taught. The students can gain firsthand experience of the software products that are installed at the campus. Through this initiative, IBM will work closely with the colleges in the state of Madhya Pradesh, leveraging the selected colleges as centers of learning.
"Organizations are not looking for nuts-and-bolts programmers and easy-to-document support workers," said Anil Menon, VP Channel, Marketing and Ecosystem, IBM India/South Asia. "The dynamic world of IT requires talents to have a strong technology background supported by sharp business acumen and to be able to architect and implement IT plans to create high business value. IBM is establishing the Centers of Excellence to promote high quality education by providing state-of-the-art and emerging technologies in colleges/universities with the objective of nurturing highly skilled computer professionals."
The colleges will provide infrastructure and high end systems, while IBM will extend its entire range of software suite free of charge.
Dr. P. K. Jhinge, Principal, Government Engineering College, Jabalpur, said, "The need of the hour is to nurture an innovation culture among students. It is essential that the youngsters mind is seeded with the idea that 'Innovation takes the lead'. All institutes have very unique ideas on how they think technology can be applied to help solve different problems, as well as using the technology to encourage skill development among its students and faculty. IBM centers of excellence will give students the requisite exposure to gen-next technologies and go beyond the stereotypical."
Dr. Rajeev Vishwa Karma, Principal, SVITS Indore, said, "The Centers of Excellence will give students the opportunity to put skills to test and allow innovation to take center stage by providing exposure to leading and emerging technologies. We are confident that the CoEs will enable skill set development among students for years to come and are proud to collaborate with IBM to make innovation ideas possible. The association will give our students the opportunity to partner with some of the best minds across the world."
The CoEs are an outgrowth of IBM's Academic Initiative, which covers 2,000 colleges and universities around the world, a global model committed to driving evolving open standards-based IT skills. Under the initiative, IBM partners closely with the local government and academia to create an enabling environment by allowing access to IBM software, course materials, training and curriculum development, helping India become an innovators' nation by investing in skills development and technology enablement, empowering future workers with the right skills to be able to compete in the larger global workforce.
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