S. Vishnu Sharma
Women professionals who have intentions of coming back to their career after a long back have a happy news, thanks to Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M). The prestigious educational institution has launched ‘Career Back 2 Women’ Programme.
The programme also known as CB2Women will train women workforce in latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data science and Big Data, Cyber Security with Digital Forensics which will help them get required skills and gain an entry into a technical profession after a career break.
The programme was launched by IIT-M in association with Digital Skills Academy. As many as 150 hours of training will be offered to skill the women on their journey back to their careers. Women (candidates) will get a choice to opt for any level as certificates will be issued for each level.
Women professionals can re-skill themselves
Digital Skills Academy is using latest platforms and has tied-up with the forensic Intelligence Surveillance and Security Technologies (FISST) to offer this programme.
Speaking at the launch of the programme IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said many women sacrifice their active careers for various personal reasons and desire to return to their profession when their family commitments are over.
However, in the IT field, the technology changes are so rapid that they are unable to get back to their careers as their skills are probably outdated. Despite this, their industry experience and knowledge about IT are immense and can be useful to many IT companies if they can fit into current requirements immediately.
IIT Madras is happy to pioneer this programme from Digital Skills Academy at IIT Madras, to help them get back to work and retrieve their careers, he said.
The course is being offered with faculty from IIT Madras, Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing Kancheepuram, Industry experts from GITAA and GUVI, IIT Madras incubated startups and Forensic Intelligence Surveillance and Security Technologies (FISST).
Job placement assistance will be provided to all candidates who complete the advance module in selected tracks. Amit Aggarwal, VP and CEO, IT-ITeS Sector Skills Council, NASSCOM said women form a substantial portion of the IT-BPM industry, perhaps among the largest percentages in the formal sector.
Women professionals
However, in the new and emerging technologies, where job growth is going to be faster, the percentage of women is currently lower. For example, while India has the second largest Artificial Intelligence workforce in the world and only 22 per cent of them are women.
Correcting this imbalance needs multiple interventions, such as a collaboration between government, industry and academia and active engagement with young women throughout their education and into their working lives.
CB2W from IIT Madras Digital Skills Academy is a progressive step that would help in getting more women into STEM occupations and I look forward to the positive impact this will make in the years to come, he said.
Digital Skills Academy also plans to offer more courses at various levels for students and working professionals in association with NASSCOM and in partnership with training companies incubated at IIT Madras Research Park and industry partners.
Women professionals
C. Mohan Ram, Chief Mission Integrator and Innovator, FISST, said all participants will take ‘Back To Technical Track (BTCUBE),’ which is a 20 hour programme that will bring them up-to-date on technologies and demystifies latest jargons.
At the end of this program they will have a choice to select a specialization. There are four tracks offered initially. Track 1 – Data Science and Big Data, Track 2 – Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), Track 3 – Cyber Security with Digital Forensics, Track 4 – Software Engineering with Programming in Python with MongoDB. Each track has a Basic (40 hours) and Advanced modules (90 hours), he said.