Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, announced its collaboration with ICT Academy to scale the Snowflake Academia Program in India, a comprehensive initiative designed to equip educators and students with direct access to data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. At the core of this initiative is faculty enablement, equipping educators with knowledge, curriculum, and free access to Snowflake Platform, Snowflake technical foundations, and advanced courses such as data engineering and the latest AI-related programs to train their students effectively. Through this engagement, Snowflake and ICT Academy aim to train over 1,000 educators and as many as 250,000 students by providing hands-on experience and pathways to various industry-recognized SnowPro certifications over the next three years. This initiative builds on Snowflake’s global program, One Million Minds + One Platform, which is focused on global AI upskilling.
ICT Academy, a not-for-profit society, is an initiative backed by the Government of India, State Governments, and industry leaders. It is renowned for its reach, spanning 1,500+ academic institutions across 27 states, with a mission to create scalable workforce development models. The collaboration with Snowflake is aligned with the ICT Academy’s Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model, offering participation from higher education institutions, arts and science colleges, and polytechnic institutions across tier 1 and tier 2 cities. To achieve this significant scale, ICT Academy will leverage its extensive network of certified trainers to conduct both educator and student training sessions.
Driving a new era of education with India’s educators and students
The collaboration focuses on three key areas: building student data literacy through hands-on training and certifications, empowering faculty via a train-the-trainer model, and strengthening industry–academia engagement through events and hackathons.
Educators are at the heart of this collaboration. The program aims to train and certify over 250 faculty annually on the SnowPro Associate certification and support more than 1,000 educators to integrate Snowflake concepts into their teaching. Snowflake will provide faculty with dedicated enablement sessions, a ready-to-teach curriculum, learning materials, tailored hands-on training, and the software required to train students. Faculty will become proficient in demonstrating Snowflake concepts and embedding them into various college courses, such as cloud computing, data warehousing, big data analytics, database management systems, machine learning, AI, and software engineering. Faculties will also get access to a vibrant global community of educators who are leveraging Snowflake in their curricula, fostering opportunities for connection and collaboration.
Students will gain direct access to the Snowflake AI Data Cloud for hands-on learning and project work, supported by a structured curriculum, official teaching resources, and cost-free platform credits. Students will benefit from practical, industry-relevant training and certifications, enhancing their employability and career readiness in the growing data and AI workforce. The Snowflake courses will be available to students enrolled in the third year of Computer Science, Engineering, or Management-related programs. The new courses will be offered in multiple formats, allowing them to be integrated directly into the college curriculum, included as lessons within existing subjects, or provided as extracurricular subjects. This flexibility will enable faculty to seamlessly bring these valuable skills into the classroom, giving students multiple pathways to learn and develop their expertise.
The collaboration also fosters connections between academia and industry through roundtables, seminars, and industry events, providing students and educators with opportunities to engage directly with technology leaders and employers.
Following the pilot launch at ICT Bridge Coimbatore, which involves 10+ institutions and 5,000 students, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College (SREC), Coimbatore, is one of the early colleges to enroll in the program. ICT Academy will support Snowflake in scaling the program nationwide across its member institutions.
Mr. Vijayant Rai, Managing Director, India, Snowflake.
“The collaboration with ICT Academy is a major step in shaping India’s data and AI future-ready workforce. By providing access to a relevant, up-to-date curriculum that includes ready-to-use modules, Snowflake is helping bridge the gap between academic theory and practical application. We are proud to work with the ICT Academy to enable educators and students to create a sustainable model for large-scale AI skilling in India. This collaboration will accelerate student career opportunities by allowing them to gain hands-on experience and graduate with a strong portfolio of projects, showcasing the industry-ready skills employers are looking for today and tomorrow,” said Mr. Vijayant Rai, Managing Director, India, Snowflake.
Mr. Srikanth. V, Chief Executive Officer, ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu
Speaking on the collaboration, Mr. Srikanth. V, Chief Executive Officer, ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu added, “Our collaboration with Snowflake is not just about introducing new courses, it’s about transforming the way data and AI are taught in India. By providing faculty with the latest tools and curriculum, we are creating a multiplier effect that will benefit students for years to come. This partnership will help bridge the urban–rural skills divide, enabling institutions across Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities to produce graduates who are industry-ready from day one.”
Dr. Soundarrajan, Principal of Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore.
“At SREC, we are focused on ensuring students are exposed to the real-world technologies and practices they’ll experience in the workplace. Snowflake’s industry-aligned curriculum and hands-on workshops, delivered robustly, are a great opportunity for our faculty and students to access essential learnings in today’s data and AI era. Exposure to these courses at this stage plants the seed for future leaders in India’s rapidly changing work landscape and supports the development of the skillsets employers are looking for in our candidates,” said Dr. Soundarrajan, Principal of Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore.
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