Bengaluru :Google today launched a program to offer Android Nanodegrees in India in partnership with online education company Udacity, with a vision to transform the country into a hub of high-quality mobile developers for global and local apps.
The Android Nanodegree is an education credential that is designed to help developers learn new skills and advance their careers in a few months from anywhere on any device at their own pace, the company officials said.
As part of the program, Google and Tata Trusts will offer 1,000 scholarships for the Android Nanodegree to deserving students across the country.
“Thanks to the very large IT services industry, we have over 3 million software professionals in India already, so that is a pretty large developer base…the current estimate is that by 2018, India will overtake the US in terms of number of developers and we will have over four million developers in India by then,” Google VP and MD (South East Asia&India) Rajan Anandan told reporters here.
“But not so great news is that if you look at the top 1,000 apps on Android globally, only two per cent of those apps come from Indian app developers… if you look at the top 100 apps on the Google play store globally (is) zero- we don’t have a single app from India,” he said.
“We have a large number of developers, but at this point we have a massive shortage of quality in the ecosystem – developers who can build very high quality, highly scalable apps – and the Android Nanodegree programme is squarely focused on addressing this skill gap that we have in the ecosystem,” he added.
The Udacity Android Nanodegree program comprises courses developed and taught by expert Google instructors from the Google Developer Relations team and will include project reviews, mentorship and career services from Udacity.
The curriculum will be updated regularly with new releases and will provide developers with a certificate that will help them become a more marketable Android developer, officials from Udacity said.
Sebastian Thrun, founder and CEO of Udacity said, “the Udacity Android Nanodegree program is open for enrolment right now. The program takes an average of 6-9 months and costs Rs 9,800 per month with Udacity refunding 50 per cent of the tuition upon completion.”
Google along with Tata Trusts will offer 500 free scholarships each to developers for Android Developer Nanodegree program.
“Through this initiative, Tata Trusts helps build the digital ecosystem and stands by its core objective of creating a sustainable difference for empowering communities across the Nation,” Tata Trusts Development Manager Ganesh Neelam said.
PTI