- The CyberShikshaa for Educators program will provide cybersecurity skills training to 400 faculty members across 100 institutions
- Will empower 6,000 students to build careers in cybersecurity through skills training, internships and job placement opportunities
Hyderabad, June 24, 2022: As part of its ongoing commitment to create a robust cybersecurity ecosystem in the country, Microsoft India today announced the launch of the CyberShikshaa for Educators initiative in collaboration with ICT Academy. In its first year, the program will skill faculty and higher education students from rural engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Assam, Uttarakhand, Delhi NCR and Rajasthan.
In its first leg, the program will empower 400 faculty members across 100 rural institutions in India with industry relevant skills in cybersecurity, equipping them with the tools to train students. Through the trained faculty and ICT facilitators, the initiative will further train 6,000 students from rural engineering colleges to prepare them for a career in cybersecurity. In addition, Microsoft and ICT Academy will work with a strategic consortium of partners to facilitate job placement opportunities and internships for over 1,500 students. The program has been designed to ensure higher participation of women educators and women graduating students from rural geographies, to create an equitable and diverse cybersecurity talent pool.
Commenting on the initiative, Kate Behncken, Vice President, and Lead of Microsoft Philanthropies, said, “As the cybersecurity threat landscape becomes more complex, investing in cybersecurity skilling and preparing the next generation of security leaders has become more important than ever. India is estimated to have 1.5 million job vacancies in cybersecurity by 2025. The CyberShikshaa for Educators initiative is a significant step towards creating a vibrant and diverse cybersecurity talent pool in India. Our intent is to take cybersecurity skilling to the grassroots and empower both educators and students with the skills needed to thrive in a digital economy. “
Mr Hari Balachandran CEO, ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu, said, “With the growing demand for women cybersecurity professionals in India, closing the demand-supply gap is the need of the hour. ICT Academy is on a mission to prepare youth for the future of work and is glad to partner with Microsoft in empowering educators and women in the cybersecurity domain. Often, the lack of technical training or formal certifications is the barrier for any woman to begin a career in cybersecurity. Reaching out to rural students, creating awareness among women, and helping them learn and qualify at their convenience will create more aspirants and generate more women professionals in the field. Particularly, empowering educators will create a sustainable impact in developing skilled professionals.
To address the gender divide and empower underserved women for a career in cybersecurity, Microsoft launched the country’s first cybersecurity skilling program, CyberShikshaa, in collaboration with the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) in 2018. Continuing the path to democratize access to cyber security skilling for young women from semi-urban and rural geographies, Microsoft expanded CyberShikshaa to collaborate with TATA Strive in 2021. Through these partnerships, more than 1,100 young women have been enabled with hands-on experience and technical training in cybersecurity with mentorship from industry experts. Additionally, over 600 women have been supported for job placements with leading companies.
About Microsoft India
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 16,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research, development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida and Pune. Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local data centers to accelerate digital transformation across Indian startups, businesses, and government organizations.
About ICT Academy
ICT Academy is an initiative of the Government of India in collaboration with the state Governments and Industries. ICT Academy is a not-for-profit society, the first of its kind pioneer venture under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model that endeavours to train the higher education teachers and students thereby exercises on developing the next generation teachers and industry ready students. ICT Academy was started to meet the skill requirements of the industry and generate more employment especially in tier 2 and 3 towns, the rural parts of the country. The organization was formed with representations from the State Government of Tamil Nadu, leading companies in the ICT industry and National Association of Software Services Companies (NASSCOM) in India.
