Today, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, The McGraw-Hill companies and Wipro announced their partnership in developing mConnect, an open-standard mobile learning platform, a technical solution aimed at narrowing the skills gap in emerging markets. To start, the solution will be implemented in Asia and afterwards it will be extended on the African continent.

McGraw-Hill is leading global and financial information and education company that will join forces with Wipro, the technology solutions provider, to pilot the service in India among students and workers. The program put emphasis on English-language training as this is a prerequisite for almost any job in the global economy and also on preparation for university entrance.

mConnect addresses students and workers’ needs in rural, low-income areas via mobile devices, as it is known that Indians alone own about 700 million mobile phones. Harold McGraw III, chairman, president and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies stated that “in a country with more than 700 million cell phones, mobile learning will help level the playing field for education in India in ways never before possible. The success of our pilots in India will serve as a powerful example of how business, schools and governments around the world can harness the power of mobile learning to give more people the skills to succeed in the global Knowledge Economy.”

Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Ltd. Underlined the importance of high-quality education for a nation’s growth and that “the goal is to use mConnect as a way to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and reach of education across the globe.  We have made this an area of strategic investment and are honored, as a long-term partner of McGraw-Hill, to be part of this unique opportunity – to blend our expertise in technology along with world-class educational systems and content.  This is a business initiative that we both believe can truly make a positive difference.”

The project look promising considering, that it is based on the use of mobile devices such as laptops, mobile phones, smartphones and so on. Worldwide there are over 5.3 billion mobile phone subscriptions according to the International Telecommunications Union, and by 2013 the number of smart phones worldwide will surpass PCs, 1.82 billion to 1.78 billion according to Gartner Research.