Google To Train 2 Million Indian Android Developers (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Stack: Google has announced its new "Android Fundamentals" training program, which aims to train and certify up to two million Android developers in India. The course, soon to be available online and at schools country-wide, is focused on training, testing, and certifying Android developers to prepare students for careers using Android technology. Google is currently working to update the skills of its existing trainers to prepare them to teach the Fundamentals course, as well as updating course materials to provide students a solid foundation in Android development. The new program works with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Skill India' initiative, launched in 2015 with the intent of training 400 million Indian citizens with new vocational skills by 2022. Caesar Sengupta, VP Product Management for Google, said that while India is forecasted to have the largest developer population in the world by 2018, with almost four million developers, only a quarter of them are currently building for mobile.

Comments

Another reason

[colinrichardday]

Another reason for Americans to not study programming.

Re:Another reason

[superwiz]

Another reason for Americans to not study programming.

To be more precise, another reason for Americans not to study programming on Android. According to the summary only 1/4 of 4 million Indian developers are working on mobile. And these are supposed to be additional 2 million developers. So the program plans to increase the number of Indian developers by 50%. I have to admit, this seriously gives me pause about having learn-android-platform on my todo list. It moves it somewhere below learn-cobol level. I am surprised to see this come out of Google though. Instead of finding ways to automate many tasks of Android development they decide to hand it off to be done through repetitive cheap human labor. Didn't expect it from the company which used to strive to be at the forefront of development. I am curious though what Kurzweil thinks of it. It's certainly a move towards flattening the singularity trend rather than allowing it to spike.

Re: Another reason

[JaredOfEuropa]

There is demand for quality coders everywhere I look. Problem is: companies seem to be able to select halfway decent coders from the absolute rubbish ones, but they are poor at spotting real talent, and (perhaps as a result) are unwilling to pay for it. I've had these discussions a few times, project manager or dept head wants a top coder for a difficult job, I tell them I can recommend someone but he does charge €x / hour, after which the response is "are you f-ing nuts?!". They do sometimes pay top rates for top talent to jump on a project and fix stuff that the team cannot handle, but they see it as paying troubleshooter / interim rates. Sure, you can hire 2 average coders instead of 1 really good one, or 6 Indians, but what these managers fail to understand is that the good one will do more than twice the work of the average ones and over 6 times of what the Indians will produce. Not because they are superhumanly fast coders, but because they help managers and teams avoid the mistakes they are crying about now.

Companies want (demand, beg for) quality coders, but only when their project goes tits up. caught early in unit tests, etc.

Re:Uh huh....

[OzPeter]

Texas land owners as well as Texas businesses prefer to hire Mexicans--illegal or otherwise for work. Drive by any gas station on a weekday morning and there are dozens of Mexicans waiting around for the white man to come and collect them in pickup trucks to go and do their thing.

There's your self entitlement for you. Thinking that you can hire illegals and day workers for the cheapest price so that you benefit the most, but screw what it does to your local economy.

I was thinking of starting a lawn care business, but it's impossible because the Mexicans have driven down the prices to what a white guy cannot live on. It's easy for them to live compared to us because they are willing to live in shit conditions and 8-10 in an apartment or tiny house. Who the hell want to live with their extended family? I sure as hell don't.

And it strikes again. You have this belief that you are above living with an extended family. No matter that for 99% of humanities existence, and for 99% of the rest of the world that's just the way it is. But no, your'e too good for that.

I work in IT in Texas--Houston area--and IT sucks here. All of the oil and gas companies have laid off so many IT people, they are now competing for the crappy jobs that remain. IT pays little here compared to other places. Austin is an IT hub, but the traffic sucks worse than Houston, it's more expensive and it's a hipster enclave.

More judgmental complaining. Don't people have a right to be a hipster if they wish?

I've been in IT across 3 decades and I'm seriously considering getting out, but I have no damn clue what to do since IT is all I know.

You have a connection to most fantastic library in the entire history of the world, a truly wondrous trove of information, yet you have no clue who you really are or what you want to do. And that is your fundamental problem. You have no idea who you are. Perhaps you should take time for some introspection.

Re:if they would fit them with typewriters,

[arglebargle_xiv]

they would create a new Shakespeare play in no time at all. Better than coding.

Having had to unravel (well, more like throw out and rewrite) code that had been outsourced to Indian contractors, that goes some way to explaining how they seem to write code over there.

Re:TRANSLATION

[bayankaran]

I am your Indian software developer.

If a developer is not capable, its for the organization to do something about it. If the organization/enterprise prefers a developer because he/she charges less though he/she is incompetent, then blame the organization, not the worker.

Also, most of the enterprise software work - for that matter most of web application development, including Android - needs someone who can understand the process and connect the dots. Genuinely good and imaginative programmers will be bored out of their wits in no time.

It seems you are mediocre yourself.

In 2009

[williamyf]

In 2009, when microsoft did their "Elevate America" training FOR AMERICANS, the Slashdot Collective complained, loud and clear...

https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/02/23/220227/microsoft-unveils-elevate-america

I am guessing the Hindustanis will not complain so loudly, if at all...

Enjoy

this was my comment in 2009:

"Lets only hope That RedHat, Suse and the FSF come up with similar programs, both in breadth and # of persons reached.

That way, the computer Illiterate can choose what technology to learn, and are armed and ready when the ceconomy picks up in three years time...

And let's also hope that Microsoft, RedHat, Suse, the FSF, Cisco, Juniper, IBM, Oracle, Sun and the gang rememeber that this is a GLOBAL crisis, and launch similar programs worldwide....

Bridging the "digital divide" will only be good for America and for the World

Salud!"

Re:Is this available to the US also?

[TheGratefulNet]

strongly disagree, people of your own country ARE ENTITLED to jobs IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.

the fact that you don't get this, its very telling, indeed.

the whole POINT of a country is to protect and give pref treatment to the people who grew up there, paid taxes all their lives, have invested in that place and often, their parents were from there and their kids will stay there.

yes, I, who grew up here in the US, demand to have first right of jobs over some foreigner who did nothing for the US, and in fact, won't do anything for the US once they take their money away and return home, later on.

I have more right to american jobs than indians who were not born here do. they are arrogant AS FUCK, thinking they really do have as much rights as the locals do.

let me turn it around: if I were to move to india, would I - and should I - expect the same rights as locals? of course not!

get real, indians. you don't deserve more rights or even the same rights as those who are invested here and who are part of this country, for the long-run. long after you leave, the rest of us will still be here, picking up the pieces you left behind.

you bet we have a right to jobs ahead of you. the fact that you don't see it proves the point even more how much you DO NOT UNDERSTAND what america is about.

Re:Uh huh....

[TheGratefulNet]

I predict and fully expect to see a rise in american 'terrorism', where americans have been out of work long enough to lose thier homes and feel that they have nothing left so 'fuck it, I'm going on a rampage'.

god help us all once this eventually happens. google and the rest all have the police in their pockets and anyone trying to rush the google campus will get the full riot police on thier asses, but when you have nothing left, you have nothing left to lose. hell, I've been close to that point, myself, feeling quite abandoned by my american 'brothers' who are running the US companies into the ground.

keep depressing local wages and sending jobs overseas. keep it up. you WILL create more locals who want to see you die.

or, maybe start thinking about easing off the outsourcing and h1b's and put americans (who really need and deserve jobs) back to work in a living wage again.

your choice. we rush your gates or you keep us fed.

give it 5-10 more years and this will be on the news.