Partnership Melds Liberal Arts Education with Workforce Training
A new initiative at Trinity College (CT) is tasked with preparing students for the digital workplace of the future. The college has partnered with Infosys, a provider of consulting, technology and next-generation services, to establish the Trinity-Infosys Applied Learning Initiative. The multi-year project will provide learning opportunities for Trinity's liberal arts students, engage faculty and alumni, and offer training for Infosys employees, according to a news announcement.
The initiative will combine face-to-face personalized learning with the Infosys LEX virtual learning platform. Content will be co-developed by Trinity (providing liberal arts education) and Infosys (focusing on technology and innovation). Planned projects include: internships and job opportunities for Trinity graduates; continuous learning opportunities for Infosys employees and Trinity alumni; a potential summer bridge program to help liberal arts students acquire workforce skills in technology-led innovation; and designing and piloting new digital technologies to advance liberal arts education, the announcement said.
"Building a new hybrid talent pool, which draws on broad-based liberal arts foundations and promotes cognitive diversity, will add immense value to the technology consulting industry and address an important skills gap for the 21st century," said Ravi Kumar, president and deputy COO for Infosys, in a statement. "We need people with human-centered skills who can approach problems in entirely new ways, not just solve them, and who will contribute to out-of-the-box thinking in a digital age."
"Our partnership with Infosys will serve as a national model for leveraging the liberal arts in creating the future of work," commented Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Trinity College president and professor of neuroscience. "In a rapidly changing world, we will provide Trinity students with unique advantages, complementing their core liberal arts education with technological skills and applied learning that will position them to thrive in the digital workplace."
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Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].