Bangalore: IBM has announced collaboration with three engineering and technology colleges in the state of Madhya Pradesh to provide a platform for development of software skills among the students. The collaboration has brought the establishment of a series of IBM Centers of Excellence (COE), providing opportunity for students to learn skill sets on IBM software products - DB2, WebSphere, Lotus, Rational and Tivoli.

The COEs were launched at Government College, Jabalpur, Shri Vaishnav Institute of Technology and Science (SVITS), Indore and Mahakal Institute of Technology (MIT), Ujjain. The colleges will provide infrastructure and high end systems while IBM will extend its range of software suite free of charge. IBM will follow a two-pronged approach, providing the colleges with access to technologies relevant to the market. The students can gain firsthand experience of the software products that are installed at the campus. Through this initiative, IBM will work closely with the colleges in the state of Madhya Pradesh, leveraging the selected colleges as centers of learning. Anil Menon, Vice President Channel, Marketing and Ecosystem at IBM India/South Asia said, "Organizations are not looking for nuts-and-bolts programmers and easy-to-document support workers. The world of information technology requires talents to have a strong technology background supported by sharp business acumen and to be able to architect and implement IT plans to create high business value."

The COE is an outgrowth of IBM's Academic Initiative which covers 2,000 colleges and universities around the world. IBM partners closely with the local government and academia to create an enabling environment by allowing access to IBM software. Dr. Rajeev Vishwa Karma, Principal, SVITS Indore said, "The Centers of Excellence will give students the opportunity to put skills to test and allow innovation to take center stage by providing exposure to leading and emerging technologies."