Delhi, May 28th, 2010: A pioneering initiative to enhance employability for the youth was announced in the capital by an association comprising Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Global Talent Track (GTT). This initiative will offer programmes for creating a talent pool with specialized skill sets for the IT and BFSI sectors helping the candidates find the right kind of placement opportunities with leading organizations in these sectors.
India's IT industry is growing at over 25 percent a year and there has been an increase in India's software and services exports by 34.5 percent from the previous year, according to the NASSCOM Report. By 2010, the Indian IT industry is expected to directly employ approximately 2.3 million people, besides providing indirect employment to another 6.5 million workers while the BFSI sector is probable to augment from US$ 4.8 billion in 2005 to US$ 20 billion in 2010 and further to US$ 40 billion.
Considering this profit pool of the Indian Industry, there is a shortage of skilled staff which acts as a major bottleneck thus the skills and quality of the workforce needs to be improved as only 25 percent of technical graduates are suitable for employment in the offshore IT industry in India.
In response to this initiative, Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, says, “India aims to train 500 million people in the next few years and various initiatives have been taken on board for this. The association of IGNOU-GTT is one such. The aim of this initiative is to create a talent pool which will provide skill sets and academic rigour to students according to the relevant industry requirements. It would also act as a wholesome proposition to students who would receive the training and opportunity.â€
This Programme will help lakhs of students to access quality oriented training aimed at employment for the sunrise industries, namely, IT and BFSI. These programmes will run on blended learning format comprising of face-to-face, e-learning as well as interactive classroom supported by appropriate study workbooks. The objective of the offerings is to create a rich talent pool to help candidates acquire competencies as required to meet the expectations of the employers, thus making them industry ready when they successfully complete the programmes. IGNOU and GTT would work together to continuously update the curriculum and work closely with the industry to make the programmes deliver value to the students as well as the industry.
According to Dr. Uma Ganesh, CEO Global Talent Track (GTT), “GTT partnership will help in bringing in reality to the lives of lakhs of people in the capital who wish to make it big in their careers. Indian professional talent has been recognised world over and the reality is when it comes to skills, its track record has been far from satisfactory. The percentage of population amongst the youth that is single skilled is 96% in the case of Korea, 28% in the case of Mexico and 22% in the case of Botswana. India‘s skill base stands at just over 5% amongst the youth and that is a cause for concern. GTT supports the initiative of blended learning and we offer to be partner with IGNOU in India to reach out millions of people who needs proper & continuous education While GTT takes care of the delivery, IGNOU will facilitate the co-ordination process and support.â€
Under this intiative, the programmes offered are MBA (Networks & Infrastructure Management), MBA (Insurance), BCA (Ntework Infrastructure Management) and Certificate in System Support. The training would be conducted at the ´Contact Class Centres‘ set by GTT across the country. The most unique thing about these programmes is such that if any student is unable to finish the entire programme at a stretch, they would be granted additional time to complete the program which would be a maximum of one additional year in case of MBA and BCA pragram and six months in the case of certificate program.
With such exclusive program being offered to the students, they have an additional advantage of a credit accumulation where they can carry forward cumulative credits earned from a specific program for a period of maximum 18 months towards the next higher qualification. The programmes will be launched at Pune, Nashik, Chiplun, Ahmednagar, Jammu, Delhi, Srinagar, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh and Jaipur.
About Global Talent Track
Global Talent Track (GTT) is a path breaking global education initiative, set up by some of the best minds from the industry, education and technology domains. The venture aims to provide ´quality with scale‘, through programs delivered across Asia through innovative technologies and compelling content. Partnered with Intel Capital and Helion Ventures while technologically supported by CISCO.
GTT has tied up with the University of Pune to train 30,000 students in 100 colleges across Maharashtra and is in the process of building similar associations with various universities in Rajasthan, MP, UP, Gujarat, Orissa and Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir among others.
www.gttconnect.com
About IGNOU
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is also the apex body for open universities and distance education institutions in the country. It is envisaged to be an instrument for democratizing and augmenting opportunities for higher education, widening access and promoting a flexible and cost-effective system of imparting knowledge. The University offers about 138 programmes and has a network of 58 Regional Centers and 1804 study centers to support academic counselling of students.
Multi-Media learning through self-instructional illustrated print materials, audiocassettes, video programmes, phone-in radio counselling and teleconferencing form the package of delivery for distance education.
http://www.ignou.ac.in/
For more Details, contact:
Ms. Rashmi Gour
Executive-Marketing Communications
(M) +91 9975611046
(E) [email protected]
(W) www.gttconnect.com