BANGALORE, INDIA: Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), The Advanced Center for Informatics & Innovative Learning (ACIIL) and IBM India signed an MOU on Saturday to strengthen IT education in the country.

The collaboration, co-operation and joint working of IBM, with IGNOU, will bridge the gap that existed till now on education, skills and national development, said a press release.

As part of the MOU, IGNOU and IBM India would partner to skill students on the IT standards in the emerging verticals like healthcare, financial services and retail that have a significant growth potential, in addition to the skills demand of Open Source software and Open Standards, with live projects.

The three programs that will be offered in the first phase under this MOU would include: Certificate in Open Source Software, Diploma in Open Source Software & Industry Vertical Domain Open Standards and Advanced Diploma in Industry Vertical Domain Open Standards (Healthcare/ Retail/ Insurance).

The Innovation Centre for Open Standards (iCos), an online platform, will be the underlying framework for the engagement between IBM and IGNOU for the execution of the courses, the release added. The IBM iCos platform links students' project based learning with IT industry and mentors.

“The MoU aptly fits into IGNOU’s vision of democratizing the education and offering quality education to all,” said Prof. Srivathsan, Pro Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, who spoke on the occasion. “It opens up the modernization of IT and Computer Science education as well as their applications in different verticals.”

IBM vice president – Sales Programs, Systems and Technology Group, India/SA, Shailesh Agarwal said this MoU shows IBM's commitment towards building a strong industry-academia relationship.

“Initiatives like this is one way that universities can help students to learn by marrying traditional curriculum with domain-specific course material that will help build new skills and make the students future-ready,’ he said.

Recently IGNOU had joined hands with the IT Department to extend e-learning in the north-eastern States of the country.