Companies in the information technology space are looking at nurturing talent across geographies. In the past few weeks, companies including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro have implemented programmes for individuals in the US and the UK.
TCS today announced its support to the Study India Programme (SIP) 2012, a UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI). The programme is designed to nurture the essential employability skills that businesses will look for in developing a best-of-breed workforce in an increasingly competitive global business environment.
Through the UKIERI Study India Programme, UK school leavers and students visit India for four weeks during the summer months to engage in a combination of cultural and commercial opportunities. This will also include a week long placement, to provide insight into business operations in a global setting. This year, 60 of the students on the UKIERI Study India Programme will carry out internships at TCS and 42 of them will experience working with Tata Group companies.
Shankar Narayanan, Director and Head of TCS in the UK and Ireland said, "The Study India Programme is a part of our UK skills development initiatives that are geared towards helping to improve employability by encouraging social entrepreneurialism and a global mindset as well as strengthening knowledge through the world of work."
Similarly, Wipro and University of Massachusetts Boston had recently jointly announced the launch of a 12-month fellowship program in the US to train 120 school teachers over three years, with the aim of fostering excellence in science education among students from disadvantaged areas of Boston and New York. The program, to be entirely funded by Wipro, will identify 40 experienced science teachers in the Boston and New York areas-from those engaged with kindergarten to grade 12-every year, after a rigorous selection process
The one-year Wipro Fellowship program for teachers is aimed at developing competencies and galvanizing their leadership potential to make them catalysts of change in their schools, districts and among educators. "The US is the cradle of innovation. This program is part of Wipro's efforts to align with US' goal to engender an environment that continues to instill and nurture scientific temper and innovative spirit among young people," TK Kurien, CEO of IT business and Executive Director, Wipro had said recently.
Industry experts are of the view that this is an attempt by Indian companies to internationalise their talent initiatives. "Earlier, companies would attempt to initiate programmes only in their home country. But, now they are going beyond boundaries because they have presence across the world," said the chief consultant with a Mumbai-based human resource firm.
