HCL Info opens career development centre in Bangalore
Thursday, 23 August 2007, 19:30 IST
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Bangalore: HCL Infosystems, the premier $2.6 billion infotech firm, has set up a career development centre (CDC) in India's IT hub of Bangalore to train students in hardware, software and networking domains. To bridge the growing demand-supply gap for industry-ready professionals, the centre will offer modular courses, titled "HCL certified network engineer (HCNE)", for students completing the 12th standard or engineering degree and are aspiring for a career in the IT sector. "The IT boom has caused a severe shortage of skilled engineers in the ICT (information and communication technologies) sector across the country. The CDCs, which are run by the company and through franchise, are intended to enlarge the talent pool for direct placement in ICT firms," HCL Infosystems executive vice-president Rajendra Kumar told reporters here Wednesday. Though the Noida-based company has set up one CDC each in 30 cities, including 24 centres through franchise across northern and western regions during the last 12 months, it is foraying into southern and eastern regions by opening another 70 centres over the next 12-18 months. The Bangalore centre will have a capacity to train about 500 students per year. In Karnataka, the company has opened a franchise centre at Hubli, about 450 km from here. The courses, with duration ranging from three months to a year, will also be offered to working professionals in the private sector and government organisations for honing their skills in the area of their specialisation. Employees in the ICT sector can also undertake the course for enhancing their skills and lateral postings in their respective firms. "The trained students will have the option to join HCL or any other firm in the ICT or other sectors. We hire about 1,000 trained students per year to meet our growing requirement," Kumar said. According to a study by the research organisation E-Value, though the current demand for networking professionals in the ICT sector is estimated to be about 200,000 per annum, the supply is limited to about 60 percent. The deficit is projected to increase at a CAGR (cumulative average growth rate) of 21 percent by 2010. Another study by Cisco-IDC found one-third of the ICT firms were unable to meet their requirement in the absence of such industry-ready professionals. "We have designed the courses to meet the specific needs of public and private organisations. The HCNE programme, containing seven modules, 21 projects and 70 online tests, will train students for direct absorption in enterprise-wide IT deployment and integration assignments," HCL education head S.T.M. Eswar noted. The company will also provide placement support to those students who excel in academics and display high performance during the course. HCL offers products and infrastructure solutions in computing, communications, networking, office automation, broadcasting and imaging.
Source: IANS
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