Cisco is Preparing India to Compete in the Global Economy

By 2020 Cisco aims to create a pipeline of 250,000 skilled students in India as well as a marketplace for high-value technology-based careers.

According to a recent study, only 34 percent of India's 5 million graduates are employable in any industry.

Harish Krishnan, Managing Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Engagements, Cisco India & SAARC said, “For India to compete in the global economy, strategic collaboration between businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations is critical."

He added, "At Cisco, our collaborations and programs are focused on harnessing the power of technology to support and launch a generation of problem solvers who will innovate like technologists, think like entrepreneurs and act as social change agents.”

Technologically skilled Professionals:

As part of its efforts to accelerate India’s digital transformation, Cisco is scaling up its Cisco Networking Academy program to create a pool of highly-skilled technology professionals.

Through this program schools, colleges, universities and other non-profit educational institutions are provided Cisco-developed curriculum in computer networking, security, and IoT that can be integrated with the institution’s own educational offering.

Ingrain Technical Skills in School Students

Talent Outreach Program is a six-month program to provide high school students an early exposure to technical skills to better prepare them as global problem solvers.

The students of this program use technologies like HTML, JavaScript, AngularJS, Bootstrap, PHP, MySQL, Python, IoT (raspberry pi) to create platforms and apps to address real-life challenges faced by schools and students.

Some of the projects include a school-wide book sharing app through which students can upload books to share, read and learn with other students; and an RFID-based attendance system for class students, which is a solution that eliminates the tedious time-consuming task of manually tracking attendance and minimizes the risk of error.

Building Potentials at Early Age

‘Step Up for India – Spoken English Program’ is in its fourth year. The program delivers structured spoken English classes to students in grade 4 and 5 studying in government schools where the medium of instruction is the local language.

These structured interventions are also executed in the space of STEM learning such as in the case of ‘Project Smiles Through Science’ which endeavors to provide an experiential learning platform for students on the basics of robotics through structured year-long programs leveraging the expertise and mentorship of Cisco volunteers.