IGNOU & NIIT BRING TOGETHER EDUCATION AND SKILL BUILDING TO ENHANCE EMPLOYABLE TALENT POOL
Chart a New Course in Industry Linked Career Focused Education
Students to Enjoy Dual Benefit of Degree Program from IGNOU and Professional Training from NIIT
New Delhi, March 10, 2010: IGNOU- world’s largest Open University and NIIT- leading Global Talent Development Corporation and Asia’s largest IT trainer, have entered into a ‘Global Partnership in Education & Skill Building for Enhanced Employability.’ The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on this significant partnership was announced by Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU and Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman, NIIT, today.
Under this Global Partnership IGNOU & NIIT plan to collaborate in domains like Information Technology and Management Sciences for its India and international operations. JointPrograms in IT would include programs in stand-alone undergraduate programs or combined Master’s programs. An Executive MBA will be offered as a part of management programs. The tie-up will also be extended to Finishing School programs that would be available as optional programs for IGNOU students and Alumni.
Speaking on the occasion Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, remarked, “More and more people today look up to us to get customized education which is internationally viable. We gradually found our education rather lauded both for employability as well as intellectual recluse. Students today pursue our education in a system of learning process. This global partnership with NIIT will enable students to acquire employable skills for the domestic as well as global markets.”
Mr. Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman, NIIT said, “Inspired by Prime Minister’s skills mission, the NIIT- IGNOU partnership seeks to contribute to large scale skill development”
With the return of strong hiring outlook, industry would be on the lookout for job-ready talent. According to industry experts more than 900,000 jobs are likely to be created in the year 2010 in India, of with over 350,000 new jobs will be added in the IT services companies alone. As per latest industry figures announced by NASSCOM, the IT BPO exports market alone is expected to grow by 13-15 percent and the domestic market by 15-17 percent.
Prof. Manohar Lal, Director of the School of Information and Computer Sciences (SOCIS) of IGNOU said, “Somewhere we are duty-bound to take education to all. Democratisation of computer education is the call of today. Taking the state-of-the-art IT education to the doorstep of the learners, everywhere and anywhere, is a challenge we have undertaken.”
The IGNOU- NIIT partnership aims at initiating the process for developing a pool of industry-ready professionals by bringing together higher education and skill building.
About IGNOU
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is the apex body for open universities and distance education institutions in the country. It is envisaged to be an instrument for democratizing and augmenting opportunities for higher education, widening access and promoting a flexible and cost-effective system of imparting knowledge and skills. The University offers more than 300 programmes and has a network of more than 60 Regional Centers and around 2000 Study Centers to support academic counseling of students. Besides national network coverage, some of the programmes are offered in 46 other overseas centers especially in Asia and Africa. Multi-Media learning through self-instructional illustrated print materials, audiocassettes, video programmes, phone-in radio counseling and teleconferencing from the package of delivery for distance education. IGNOU is the nodal point for Gyan Darshan – the educational TV channel, Gyan Vani FM Radio Stations and the EDUSAT, a dedicated satellite for education.
The university’s Advanced Centre for Informatics and Innovative Learning (ACIIL) and the SOCIS have recently developed an (IGNOU) Open Course Guide, called IOCG, under the mentoring of Pro Vice Chancellor Prof K. R. Srivathsan. The IOCG is likely to herald a whole gamut of revving courseware systems and their pursuit in the knowledge society worldwide.
IGNOU, the people’s university, has already developed niche areas of IT and Management-related education for the masses. Today the university’s educational programmes reach over 10 million homes through the DTH and Edusat. The recent innovative moves such as mobile telephony, online admission to certification, on-demand examination and all-time admission have created new direction to democratise higher education and research. In the recent past a firm step has been taken forward to ensure quality research and documentation through digitization of contents and repositories. IGNOU has already pressed into services the IT research through its Research and Teaching Assistantship (RTA) scheme. Three researchers are engaged in the IT domains. Over 4,00,000 IGNOU students are regularly being serviced on educational information through the mobile telephony.