India has been one of the countries in the forefront of software development and according to their numbers, by the year 2018, they will have four million of them, becoming the largest population of software developers in the world. However, less than 1/4 of them actually have the skills for the mobile platform. And that may become a problem for the country, as most of their users are using mobile devices to access the Internet. And so Google is now launching the Android Skilling Program that is, for now, exclusive only to the South Asian nation.
The aim of this initiative is to bring Android training to two million developers over the next three years in partnership with the Indian government’s Skill India. Not everyone has access to affordable training in this market and so Google is bringing the program and its various elements to those in need of a “world-class skilling and educational program”. The initiative includes End-to-end Android training, training channels, and Associate Android Developer Certification.
Part of the end-to-end training is the launch of the Android Developer Fundamentals Course, which will be available for both public and private universities and training institutes that are under the National Skill Development Corporation of India. All the practicals and courseware will be available for everyone as it is on an Open Source platform. Google is also partnering with Edureka, Koenig, Manipal Global, Simplilearn, Udacity and UpGrad and they will be known as the Authorized Android Training Partners in India.
Lastly, the Associate Android Developer Certification is a performance-based exam which can be used to get entry-level Android Developer jobs within India. The certification exam is priced at INR 6,500 (around $97) and you can take the exam by logging on to this site. Again, the Android Skilling Program is only available in India for now.
SOURCE: Google
