BM announced that it will be establishing 75 new Centers of Excellence (CoE) at engineering colleges across 60 cities in India. In 2009 too IBM set up over 75 such CoEs across the country and today?s announcement will take the total number of CoEs around the country to 150 by end-2010.
These new CoEs will be spread across 20 states and will be selected from the top 300 engineering colleges in the country.
The IBM CoEs are aimed at creating a platform for the development of software skills among the students and also gives them the opportunity to acquire new skill sets around IBM software as well as help them develop world-class business solutions.
In addition to extending high-quality education on emerging technologies through these CoEs in colleges, IBM also plans to bring its Global Entrepreneurship Initiative (GEI) to some of these colleges. This initiative helps start-ups capture new business opportunities by providing access to technology resources from IBM.
?Apart from providing training, certification and software which is free of charge to these colleges, IBM plans to take the CoEs to the next logical level of converting them into Incubation Centers, to bolster software skills and ensure industry-ready professionals ,? commented Himanshu Goyal, Country Manager - Academic Initiative, Developer Works & Globalization, IBM India/South Asia.
IBM?s Academic Initiative, under which these CoEs are being launched, has been ensuring certified and industry-ready software professionals, hitherto producing nearly 10,000 certified candidates from the various CoEs. The number is expected to increase by 6000 certified candidates in 2010. The program coupled with the company?s ?The Great Mind challenge contest? will mentor students and enable them create commercially viable projects that can tap market opportunities. Through its GEI program, IBM will select few projects based on their feasibility and provide guidance to take them to market and build sustainable business for the inventor/entrepreneurs.