One lakh students across Telangana will receive free training in Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing under a new initiative announced by IT and Industries Minister D. Sridhar Babu on Monday, with the programme covering 643 colleges affiliated with the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK).
The Telangana AI and Cloud Skilling Initiative will be implemented by TASK in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). An agreement between the two organisations was signed at the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Telangana Secretariat. According to the announcement, the programme will not impose a financial burden on the state government, participating educational institutions or students.
Students will receive industry-oriented training in Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Engineering, Machine Learning and Generative AI. The programme will provide access to the AWS Cloud Console, allowing participants to undertake hands-on learning rather than relying only on classroom-based instruction.
The initiative will not be limited to engineering and science students. Specialised learning tracks will also be offered to students enrolled in non-STEM courses, including Arts and Commerce. This widens the programme’s intended reach across the higher education system and links digital training to disciplines that are not traditionally associated with advanced technology education.
Students enrolled in the programme will receive one year of free access to more than 900 digital courses through AWS Skill Builder. They will also be offered discount vouchers for global certification examinations. The programme is expected to combine digital coursework with industry-facing activities, including technology expert sessions and hackathons.
The training component is being positioned as an employment-oriented programme. Sridhar Babu said TASK would organise special job fairs for eligible students who successfully complete the training. The announcement did not specify the number of employers expected to participate, the eligibility threshold for the job fairs or the timeline for the first recruitment event.
Faculty members from participating colleges will also receive training in Artificial Intelligence and Cloud technologies. This creates an institutional layer beyond student access, although the announcement did not provide details on the number of faculty members to be trained, the delivery format or the assessment process.
The programme places Telangana’s colleges within a state-supported digital skilling framework involving a government-linked skills agency and a global technology company. Its implementation will determine how effectively students outside the main technology disciplines can use the courses, cloud tools, certification support and industry engagements announced by TASK and AWS. Further details on enrolment, course schedules and job-fair dates are yet to be announced.
