Udacity, the U.S. online education platform, aims to expand activity overseas and is targeting Indian students to accomplish that.
Founded by Stanford professor and ex-Google roboticist Sebastian Thrun, Udacity appealed to the education market by publishing free college courses online. The learning company's plan to spread knowledge slowed down after the students' results were modest, which made most colleges drop out of the program.
In 2014, Udacity brought forward the "nanodegree," a paid intensive certification course that offers training for technical jobs, such as software development. The fact that India has one of the largest qualified IT workforces in the world and that its college population is massive promises that nanodegree will find its place there.
The Android Data Analyst Nanodegree is available free for one week then will cost $200 a month. Although it might seem expensive for the average Indian student, Udacity promises to refund half of the tuition costs after the completion of the course. The time necessary for graduation is six to nine months, after which students get an international certification of their competencies.
Corporations Google and Tata Motors are backing the nanodegrees by each offering 500 scholarships in the Android developer field to worthy students. Google announced that it will organize a job fair in 2016 for all Indian graduates of Udacity courses.
The market for developing technological competencies is consistent in India, where people spend a whopping $3 billion each year for online education. With the expansion of local Internet networks, more and more students will appreciate the flexibility of completing courses online.
One question remains: will the Udacity credentials transform into jobs for the students making financial efforts to obtain them?
With one of the youngest populations of developers and as the largest provider of IT workers globally, India is gearing up to equip its talent pool so it can compete with the world.
Even if worldwide companies Google and Tata seem to be a powerful support for Udacity's educational efforts, it is no assurance that the future graduates will actually have access to better paying jobs.
