NASSCOM And NIIT Partner To Enhance Skill Development And Quality Capacity Of Graduates

Online, January 4, 2013 (Newswire.com) - The NASSCOM Sector Skills Council (SSC), today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), for three years, with the leading talent development organization NIIT to offer enhanced training programs to students through its training campuses all across the country. The strategic alliance will offer first-of-its-kind training programs that have been designed, developed and endorsed by the industry through two initiatives- FSIT (Foundation Skills in IT) - for engineering graduates and Global Business Foundation Skills (GBFS) - for graduates of all streams.

While FSIT aims to develop foundation skills in IT, GBFS has been specifically designed to meet the needs of the BPO/KPO and the LPO industry. NIIT will leverage its on-campus delivery model - NIIT Careers@Campus, designed to enhance employability skill sets of engineering graduates in particular and the overall employability of all graduates in general.

The training program has been designed by IT-ITeS Sector Skills Council NASSCOM and the achievement levels are certified through the NAC and NAC-Tech assessments. The collaboration between NASSCOM's IT-ITeS Sector Skills Council (SSC) and NIIT aims to train over 1 lakh students over three years, starting with 30,000 students in the first year.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM, said "India has the world's largest pool of talent across geographically dispersed locations within the country and outside. Indian IT-BPM industry has been working round the clock to build a favourable environment in preparing this talent pool and making them industry-ready. While diverse efforts and initiatives have been taken by the industry and academia at various levels, there is a lot that can and needs to be done. This initiative of NASSCOM with NIIT is a step-forward in the same direction and is aimed to scale quality capacity of our graduates. We believe our initiative will go a long way in contributing towards achieving the scale that is required by the industry."

Commenting on the alliance, Mr. Rajendra Singh Pawar, Chairman, NIIT said "NIIT's training expertise together with NASSCOM's industry insights will empower college students across India."
The programs - FSIT and GBFS, are of a duration of 120 hours each and cover topics ranging from on technology to soft skills and professional skills and project management. Most of the topics covered are applicable to multiple industries and although all students are eligible to take part in the program, it is best suited for engineering students studying in third year and final year. The industry has invested substantially in the design and development of these programs and these will be continuously updated to keep it current and relevant.

About NASSCOM

NASSCOM® is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPO industries in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 1300 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM's member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPO services, e-commerce & web services, engineering services off-shoring and animation and gaming. NASSCOM's membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs over 2.32 million professionals.

About NIIT

NIIT Limited, a leading Global Talent Development Corporation and Asia's premier IT trainer, offers learning and knowledge solutions across 38 countries. NIIT was set up in 1981, to help the nascent IT industry overcome its human resource challenges and has today grown to be amongst world's leading talent development companies offering learning solutions to Individuals, Enterprises and Institutions. NIIT's training solutions in IT, Business Process Outsourcing, Banking, Finance and Insurance, Executive Management Education, Vocational Skills, School Learning Solutions and Communication & Professional Life Skills, have impacted over 35 million learners. NIIT's expertise in learning content development, training delivery and education process management make it the most preferred training partner, worldwide. The leading IT journal Dataquest has conferred upon NIIT the 'Top IT Training Company' award successively for the past 20 years, since the inception of this category.

NIIT has been ranked among the 'Top 25 Best Employers in India- 2011' by Aon Hewitt and 'Top 25 India's Best Companies to Work for' by Great Places to Work Institute. The company has also been voted the second most trusted education brand in India by Brand Equity- Nielsen Survey 2011.