The ICT Academy, which trains faculty of engineering colleges, is scaling up its operations. This includes training students using technology. The academy, which has completed three years since its inception, has so far trained over 6,000 faculty members, benefiting nearly three lakh engineering students in Tamil Nadu.
“We have successfully completed the purpose for which the academy was set up — to train faculty from engineering colleges. We now want to sustain the model. We are now entering the next and most crucial phase of expansion,” said Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice-Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and also the Chairman of the ICT Academy.
The academy was started under the public-private partnership model with Rs 6-crore funding from the Centre. IT companies such as Cognizant, TCS, Microsoft and Take Solutions have contributed in “kind” and in training of faculty, he told newspersons. The academy will now focus on areas such as research, innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership. “So far, the focus has been only on computing and communication,” he said.
The academy will reach out to students through technology-led teaching, said Lakshmi Narayanan. Nearly 350 engineering colleges, mostly from Tier-2 and 3 towns have benefited from the academy. “We now want to reach out to non-engineering colleges as well.”