AirAsia partners with Google to launch new tech academy to retrain its employees

As software continues to eat the world, people with no technical skills are left in the dust to fend for themselves. However, some companies are doing their fair share to help their employees and training them in new skills required to succeed in the digital age. One of these companies is Southeast Asian airline AirAsia. The company announced yesterday that it has teamed up Google to launch a new tech academy to reskill its employees.

The first of its kind “AirAsia Google Cloud Academy” will be managed by AirAsia’s venture arm, RedBeat Ventures, and will offer courses including digital marketing, software engineering and tech infrastructure design — all of which will be accredited by the Silicon Valley tech giant.

In a statement to popular CNBC Make It, Google Cloud’s Southeast Asia regional director Tim Synan said the deal would enable participants to better understand its technology. “Together we’re working to upskill AirAsia AllStars with relevant expertise in Google Cloud technologies and build deep technical knowledge and Cloud expertise including Kubernetes, smart analytics, Cloud AI and more,” he said.

AirAsia’s relationship with Google goes back to 2018, when it struck a deal to integrate Google Cloud’s machine learning capabilities to improve its digital capabilities. The launch of a tech academy is the latest move by AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes to diversify his business for the digital age.