Dream of working with IBM? Here's your chance

Most engineering graduates in India are considered unemployable in their domain owing to lack of market-relevant skill sets. IBM has taken upon itself the responsibility to prepare 'unemployable' Indian engineering graduates for the industry, ans how - It is conducting a "Career Challenge" for students across several Indian educational institutions in partnership with Venturesity and IBM India's University Relations team.

Keeping in view the skills gap in emerging technology areas, the company is inviting engineering students across India to register for their workshops and get training in the areas of mobile app development, cognitive computing including IBM’s Watson technology and data analytics.

The workshops will be held in 8 regions throughout India for a total of 24 workshops. The tutorials, the company says, are focused on training like interactive workshops on IBM’s Bluemix Cloud platform –as-a-service (PaaS) that will enhance their practical skills.

Following the workshops, students will be invited to take part in a Hackathon where they will develop innovative apps using these emerging technologies. But before attending the workshops, students will have to take part in a small online quiz that will test their preparedness.

Online registrations for the challenge started on July 15, 2016 and will conclude with a finale that will be held across various cities in the first week of October. So far, six workshops have already been conducted with over 1600 students attending the same. The workshops were mentored by industry experts and experts from IBM. The company cites, 11,800 students across India have registered for their online challenge.

"The main focus of this initiative is to help make students industry ready, therefore more employable and to serve as an open platform enabling hidden talent across the country to have the opportunity to be spotted. If these preliminary sessions are any indication, the goals are already being met," says Mona Bharadwaj, Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives, University Relations, IBM India / South Asia.

Meanwhile, Subhendu Panigrahi, Co-Founder of Venturesity, says, "This is a great way for companies to introduce themselves and their technologies to the student community. It also helps them to build a rapport with the community before visiting campuses for recruitment purposes and drives."

At the end of the challenge, participants will win prizes and stand a chance to have their resumes reviewed by IBM India's recruitment team for potential placement interviews and internships.