By Express News Service BENGALURU: Until a year ago, Mohammad Faisal, a Bachelors in Computer Applications student, had stage fear, could not articulate his ideas with ease, and lacked necessary soft skills to ace interviews. Along with his degree course at Government First Grade College in Tiptur, he underwent a 20-day IBM new-collar employability skills programme. “I got over my stage fear, learnt how to speak confidently, became motivated while also learning R language, Tableau Software, other programming languages, and more. I am now certain of getting placed in the upcoming placement rounds on campus,” he told TNIE.He was speaking on the sidelines of an event marking the culmination of the first year of the IBM skills programme. Sona J and Pooja, from MJR college in Hosur have already been placed in three multi-national companies respectively after taking part in the programme.More than 2,500 students from 23 colleges across Karnataka, NCR and Haryana completed IBM certified courses on data science and cloud computing from Tier 2, Tier 3 cities and Bengaluru. These students include those from non-engineering background also. Bharat from National College Basvangudi said the course has 40-50 percent students from socially backward classes and the programme helped them bag employment offers.Santosh Abraham, VP of NASSCOM Foundation said,” We helped students from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities pick up relevant skills which the industry wants. We also conducted placements and helped them find jobs.” Geetha Kannada from Wequity said in a panel discussion during the event,”At least 34 percent of tech consists of women but this number goes down to two percent in the senior levels. This happens as some organisations are not family-friendly and a few women are not clear about their career path.”

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