Cloud Computing education now becomes part of mainstream college syllabus in India

Seven higher education institutions in India today announced that they are now incorporating cloud computing education content into their mainstream college syllabus. They have partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Educate to offer industry-aligned cloud curriculum as part of the undergraduate degree and postgraduate diploma programs starting from September 2020.

Six higher education institutions incorporating cloud computing in their Bachelor of Technology degree programs in IT and Computer Science are: Chitkara University, Galgotias University, Manav Rachna University, Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology,  Sharda University, and SRM Institute of Science and Technology.

The ASM Group of Institutes is incorporating cloud computing in its Post Graduate Diploma in Management-Emerging Technology.

Although a bunch of cloud computing certification courses by various training institutes and online learning platforms are available today for the students and IT professionals to pick up the relevant skills, it was never taught as a part of mainstream college syllabus.

“Cloud has become the preferred mode of software and services delivery today and has also been instrumental in the democratization of AI, ML technologies. Hence, the demand for cloud skills is not limited to the cloud administrator, architect, or the DevOps roles only, but is crucial from the availability of a wider range of skillsets as well. The digital innovation needs spurred by the ongoing pandemic crisis are also accelerating the needs for new digital skills underpinned by cloud skills,” said Rahul Sharma, President, India and South Asia Public Sector, Amazon Internet Services Private Limited.

NASSCOM’s FutureSkills initiative in collaboration with the IT/ITeS industry also identified Cloud Computing as one of the 10 important emerging technologies that have been creating demands for almost 155+ skills spanning across 70+ job roles. The overall talent shortfall in all the emerging technologies is more than one million, said Amit Aggarwal, CEO IT-ITES Sector Skill Council NASSCOM and Co-Architect, NASSCOM FutureSkills.

“We envision India as a global hub for skilled talent in emerging technologies. Inclusion of cloud curriculum in college syllabus will not only address the availability of future-ready talents but will also address the affordability part of it. Usually, students and professionals spend extra money for picking up specific skills. Now with AWS Educate partnering with universities, learning these skills become part of the regular curriculum,” said he.

Amazon through its AWS Educate initiative provides comprehensive cloud skill development resources to students and educators in the higher education institution. It provides students with several benefits such as AWS Promotional Credits to gain hands-on experience, access to 12 Cloud Career Pathways covering in-demand topics such as machine learning, cybersecurity, and software development, opportunity to earn AWS digital badges for different competencies such as IoT, gaming, and Alexa skills and job and internship opportunities from Amazon and other companies in the AWS Partner Network. But it has been offered to students as an optional/ supplementary learning only so far.

NASSCOM and ICT Academy will also support this cloud skill-building initiative with AWS Educate. NASSCOM will facilitate greater industry participation in this effort by engaging key employers in the IT/ITES segments in India, to build a talent pipeline equipped with cloud skills. ICT Academy will assist the educational institutions with faculty development and curriculum alignment.