Code For India’s Gujarat Chapter announced SKILL UP INDIA as its first project in partnership with iCREATE and USIBC Education Foundation. The open-source and open-content portal will offer India’s youth free online courses in subjects ranging from technology to business management and select job-related skills.
The portal, named SKILL UP INDIA (http://SkillUpIndia.org), follows Prime Minister Modi’s ambitious Digital India and Make in India goals and aims to skill youth throughout India via open courseware from top universities worldwide as well as open courseware from Indian corporates which will be easily accessible free of cost. Partnerships with leading organizations will play a role to broaden its reach.
“Skilling up India’s youth – a huge percentage of our population is under 35 – will take a combination of partnerships with leading organizations and the use of the newest education technologies,” said Mr. Karl Mehta, founder of Code For India and CEO of Silicon Valley educational technology company EdCast. “SKILL UP INDIA is part of the new movement in India to help our youth with free access to high quality education through online and mobile courses essential to re-focus our workforce to meet the demands of a global economy.”
“Access to open, free education fosters the entrepreneurial pursuits of youth to focus on innovative applications for wealth generation, employment creation and global competition,” said Narayana Murthy, Chairman of iCREATE’s Advisory board. iCREATE is an independently-run center that facilitates “Next Generation Entrepreneurship” and is based in Ahmedabad.
“USIBC Education Foundation will support advancing the SKILL UP INDIA initiative under its education and skill building efforts. Scaling up skill development is critical to India’s growth and to unleashing its entrepreneurial potential of becoming a digital and manufacturing power,” said Dr. Mukesh Aghi, President USIBC. “With USIBC’s initiative of partnering with the National Skills Development Corporation to support skill development in India, SKILL UP INDIA will be an important driver in offering free online education and skilling opportunities to India’s emerging workforce and youth.”
“The Gujarat Chapter of Code For India is proud to be at the forefront of a new era in education for India’s workforce through open education providing the necessary technology skills to guarantee a future for India’s youth,” said Atul Garg, President of CFI-Gujarat Chapter.
“IIT Gandhinagar has several initiatives such as our Summer Research Internship Program (SRIP) to democratize education and research in India and support programs like SKILL UP INDIA that take this agenda further,” said Sudhir K. Jain, President- IIIT –GN.
