Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, has collaborated with ICT Academy, a not-for-profit society backed by the Government of India, State Governments, and industry leaders with a reach spanning 1,500+ academic institutions across 27 states, to scale the Snowflake Academia Program in India. The program designed to equip educators and students with direct access to data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies aims 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.
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.
ICT Academy’s 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.
Under the MoU, over 250 faculty will be trained and certified annually on the SnowPro Associate certification. More than 1,000 educators will be supported 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.
