0Earlier in May I attended a Google program called "Train The Trainer" where Google had invited Android trainers from all over India. It was a great opportunity to interact with Android people from every corner of India and from Google’s core Android team.
The objectives of Google for this program was: find answers to these questions:
1. What is the Android training scenario in India - how many students are opting for Android training?
2. What is the quality of the training courses, are the courses aligned with the actual industry demand?
3. How many Universities are conducting such training programs, are universities including Android as mainstream course etc?
As trainers we discussed lot of things around these objectives ranging from our achievements, challenges we are facing, condition of technical education in India and state of the education in engineering colleges in smaller towns. Some of the issues we found out are:
1. Students in tier 2 and tier 3 engineering colleges are not given proper guidance on the actual IT industry requirements and thus they limit themselves only to the basic computer science subjects like c, c++, OS basics.
2. Students do not become industry ready even after the graduation is completed so they usually go for additional courses to learn a specific technology/language or they have to go for very less paying jobs where during first few months they only learn and are not much productive to their employer.
3. Relatively newer technologies like Android which are in high demand in industry haven’t yet found a place in regular university curriculum. There is a huge gap in the curriculum that is followed in these technical colleges and the industry requirements.
4. The number of B.Tech and MCA graduates passing every year is very high but only a small percentage of them have the necessary skills to make them productive from day 1.This is a well-known fact that now B.Tech or MCA has become the de facto graduate degree in India.
Google has big plans for Android development and training in India. According to them there is a huge demand coming in future for Android developers globally and India can fulfill that demand with its huge pool of talent. If we overcome the challenges outlined above and help preparing the under graduates and graduates with required skill-sets, they can be ready to meet this demand. Google is aiming towards training 2 million Android developers in India in next 2 years.
Google is launching Android Skilling program specifically for India. Under this ambitious program Google will train students and professionals from India to make them industry read Android developers with authentic credentials and right skills. This program will work in three different ways:
Google’s Nanodegree program for Android basics:
In partnership with Udacity, Google has launched this Nanodegree program. College students can go for basic Java and Android Nanodegree while developers who already have 1-2 years of experience can go for Android developer NanoDegree. There is also India specific version of this program.
The candidate will be assigned a mentor to guide and reviews the submitted projects. At the successful completion of the program, the candidate will be provided a certificate from Google. This certificate can give guarantee of job.
Google Android certification program:
Under this, students can learn Android themselves using the free resources available online and can apply for certification exam from Google.
Google Training partners:
Google has partnered with major training providers in India like Simlilearn.com and Edureka.com and also with many universities to provide trainings to students. Google has given its guidelines and course structure for the purpose of training which aims towards the competent Android skills and also the certification.
(I am associated with Simplilearn.com and Acadgild.com to provide Android training to professionals and students.)
