Far away from home, university graduates are being trained by one of India's biggest software companies to become top-notch software programmers within just 16 weeks. The graduates are being put through their paces at a center in the former princely state of Mysore, 140 kilometers (86 miles) southwest of Bangalore, by India's second-biggest software giant Infosys Technologies.
Facing a shortage of skilled workers for India's booming software and outsourcing services industry, Infosys recruiters have been scouting the world for high-quality talent to help serve the company's more than 500 clients.
Set in a 335-acre (134 hectare) campus, the Infosys Mysore Development Center houses the firm's Global Education Center and the Infosys Leadership Institute.
The center can train 4,500 people in one go. It has 58 training rooms, 183 faculty rooms, a cyber cafe, a library and 2,350 bedrooms. When fully operational next year, the center will be able to train 35,000 to 40,000 Indian and foreign graduates each year and 13,500 in a single 16-week session.
The company has eight centers in India and another 30 worldwide.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies, India's leading IT body, forecasts the nation's outsourcing industry will face a shortage of 262,000 professionals by 2012.
"Today we have 1,800 people from various nationalities who work with us all over the world. We want this percentage to grow at a faster rate. We want to go to 300 people (from the US) from 126 by next year. We are also extending this to the UK where about 35 people will join us later this year," Human Resources chief Mohandas Pai said. As the firm grows it has to leverage talent from different parts of the world, especially the U.S., said Infosys Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy. "There can be no other place more competitive than the United States. As they finish they will go back and join our offices in the U.S."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
