IGNOU Inks MoU With IBM India To Reform ICT Education

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), The Advanced Centre for Informatics and Innovative Learning (ACIIL) and IBM India have signed an MoU that would re-invent IT education in the country. The collaboration and joint working of IBM, with IGNOU, will bridge the gap that existed till now in education, skills and national development.

As a part of the MoU, IGNOU and IBM India would partner to skill students on the IT standards in emerging verticals like healthcare, financial services and retail that have a significant growth potential, in addition to meeting the skills demand for Open Source software and Open Standards with live projects. The three programs that will be offered in the first phase under this MoU would include:

- A Certificate in Open Source Software
- Diploma in Open Source Software & Industry Vertical Domain Open Standards and
- Advanced Diploma in Industry Vertical Domain Open Standards (Healthcare/ Retail/ Insurance)

The Innovation Centre for Open Standards (iCos), an online platform, will be the underlying framework for the engagement between IBM and IGNOU for the execution of the courses. The IBM iCos platform links students’ project-based learning with IT industry and mentors. This will be seamlessly integrated to IGNOU’s in-house developed Unified Learning Platform in due course. This effort will fill up the Finishing School efforts of the IT Industry in the current scenario.