Bengaluru, Karnataka, India: Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, today announced that it has committed to train 250,000 students for the technology jobs of tomorrow by 2022. In separate partnerships, Salesforce has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with the ICT Academy; the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) and ICT Academy of Kerala (ICTAK). Through these partnerships, Salesforce will bring Trailhead, its free online learning platform, into the classroom – empowering students to skill up through gamified learning content and hands-on challenges.

According to a recent study by IDC, the Salesforce economy will create 548,400 direct jobs and $67 billion in new business revenues in India, between 2019 and 2024. With Trailhead, anyone – regardless of gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic background – can build the skills they need to land an in-demand job in technology, both within and beyond the Salesforce ecosystem.

• In partnership with the ICT Academy, a government of India initiative, Salesforce will train over 500 educators using Trailhead. In turn, the educators will train over 150,000 students in the next three years, from 200 member institutes across the country. The partnership will also create and nurture 20 student groups.
• Through the existing partnership with the ICT Academy of Kerala, Salesforce will also run a unique initiative, Skills Delivery Platform Kerala (SDPK) focused on establishing a state-of-the-art e-learning network. In a pilot initiative, Salesforce will reach out to engineering students from 75 colleges impacting over 25,000 students in one year.
• The partnership with TASK will reach out to 50 institutions in the state of Telangana and 100 educators training 75,000 students over the next three years, while creating and promoting over 20 student groups to be a part of the Trailblazer community.

Salesforce will plan, create and execute each of these programs for students, providing support required to its partners for training to meet the program objectives. In addition, the ‘train the trainer’ program will support educators with relevant content to drive effective training, while also empowering them by building a strong networking group of industry experts. Salesforce will also bring job recruitment opportunities to students trained on Salesforce to increase their employment opportunities.

Comments on the news:

Sunil Jose, Senior Vice President and Country Leader, Salesforce India, said, “Embracing India’s enviable workforce, we believe it is our responsibility to create jobs, reskill workers and help them succeed. As India becomes one of the youngest countries in the world, rapid innovation and adoption of emerging technologies such as IoT and AI are changing the ways we live and work. While companies embrace this change, there is the constant need for a savvy workforce that is prepared to tackle challenges unique to our digital age. We believe Trailhead can transform lives, nurture careers and make an impact on the growing Salesforce economy.”

Kris Lande, VP of Trailhead Marketing and Trailblazer Relations, Salesforce, said, “Trailhead’s mission is to democratize education and make learning accessible to all. With more than 1.8 million Trailblazers already skilling up on our platform, we’re excited to partner with  ICT Academy, ICT Academy of Kerala, and the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge to empower even more learners with the tools to skill up for the jobs of tomorrow.”

M Sivakumar, Chief Executive Officer, ICT Academy said “The opportunity that Salesforce offers is immense, the community is huge and growing exponentially. Needless to say, ICT Academy has been the pioneer and leader in developing the skills of students in emerging technologies among its 800+ member institutions across India. Additionally, the interest we’ve seen from students has been phenomenal, the fun and ease of using the Trailhead platform have students keen to learn more. We are delighted to extend our relationship with Salesforce providing access to all our member institutes through this partnership.”