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With digital disruption growing to rely heavily on future job security, AirAsia, the Southeast Asian airline, has joined Google to launch a new tech academy where employees can be reskilled.
The first of its kind, “AirAsia Google Cloud Academy,” will be run by AirAsia’s venture arm, RedBeat Ventures. It will offer various courses, including software engineering, digital marketing, and tech infrastructure design—all of which will be endorsed by the Silicon Valley tech giant.
“The deal would enable participants to understand technology better,” Tim Synan, regional director of Google Cloud’s Southeast Asia, told CNBC.
Synan said, “Together, we are working to upskill AirAsia AllStars with all needed expertise in Google Cloud technologies and build deep technical knowledge and Cloud expertise, including Cloud AI, smart analytics, Kubernetes and more.”
AirAsia partnered with Google in 2018 when it agreed to integrate Google Cloud’s machine learning competencies to advance its digital capabilities.
AirAsia didn’t announce any other major details regarding its training program with Google. However, Aireen Omar, the President of AirAsia in the head office in Kuala Lumpur, told the Nikkei Asian Review that “the academy will initially open to employees next month before being extended to the general public by year-end.”
“The launch is a part of the budget carrier’s continuing strategy to qualify workforces for the shifting jobs landscape,” Aireen Omar said and added that “more jobs might turn redundant in the next three years, so we are delivering our employees the opportunities to reskill to suit the digital economy,” Omar told Nikkei.
The launch of a tech company is surely an advanced move by AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes, who aims to diversify his business to meet the requirements of the digital age.
Last year, the airline announced it would start selling flights for over 100 rival carriers as part of founder Fernandes’ ambition to become the “Amazon of travel.”
Meanwhile, RedBeat Ventures has acquired numerous non-airline businesses, including payments platform BigPay, online ticketing site RedTix, cargo and RedBox Logistics, and parcel firms Red Cargo, to strengthen the company’s revenue streams.
AirAsia announced the launch of its first restaurant, which sold airline food, in December of last year.
Tony Fernandes expressed his feeling on the launch, saying “he hopes Santan and T&Co’s Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia outlet, which operates meals from RM15 ($3.60), would become the first in a line of AirAsia restaurants, with a Time Square location tailored the “dream.”