Fostera sets up finishing school

Fostering Technologies in Rural Areas (Fostera) has launched a rural IT finishing school to train around 7,000 youth in BPO operations.

The Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing Development Corporation (Tadhco) would fund the programme and Chennai -based training company SuniTech (India) Private Limited would implement the project.

According to Elcot managing director Santhosh Babu, Tadhco had allocated around Rs 5 crore for the project. It would cost Rs 5,000 to train each candidate and the corporation would extend a Rs 400 stipend to each.

Currently, there is a rural BPO centre at Sanasandiram at Hosur and this model would be replicated in other parts of the state. The company recently inaugurated a new centre at Uttangarai in Krishnagiri district with a seating capacity of 72 and the next one would be opened at Aandimadam constituency. Both these centres would handle voice and non-voice operations.

MR Ashok Kumar, Fostera chief executive officer, said 7,000 candidates from 30 districts would be trained in six months and industry body Nasscom would coordinate the finishing school. Microsoft India would provide the digital curriculum for the course.

The focus would be on soft and technical skills, said SuniTech chief executive officer Geetha Nagu. Candidates, who have studied up to Class X are eligible.

The programme was rolled out on February 14 in eight places. About 150 trainers would be working on the project, Nagu said.