Thiruvananthapuram:
An Intel-Kerala Government e-literacy initiative launched seven years ago has successfully trained one lakh students, John E Davies, vice-president, World Ahead Programme, Intel, said on Tuesday.The Intel Learn Programme was rolled out through Akshaya centres and was jointly implemented by the American multinational and the Kerala State IT Mission. Since 2004, one lakh students between the ages of eight and 25 years underwent training, which, according to Davies, enables the three E-s; 'education, entrepreneurship and employability'.
Davies described Intel's Kerala experience as a unique business model which provides services. In the days ahead, Intel hopes to expand it to other states also through various training modules such as 'Easy Steps', which is meant for any adult person who wish to acquire computer skills.
"In the next decade, our worldwide goal is to touch every person. This is one way to do it," Davies said.
"On the global front, Intel also plans to venture into tablets and smartphones," he said.
As part of its Kerala initiative, Intel also trained 40,000 teachers in the state under the Intel Teach program. On another front, Davies said that affordability would be the key to touching the magic number 'three billion' in PCs. The number of PCs worldwide touched one billion in 2006 and today it stands at two billion. "The PC numbers are growing, but connectivity and entry-level PCs are prerequisites," he said.