Zensar Technologies, a leading global IT and BPO services provider, today launched a Learnership Development Programme (LDP), to create industry-ready IT talent for South Africa.
In line with broad based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) codes, Zensar will identify local students and offer training programmes and skills development opportunities to support wider economic development. The first 40 students have been selected and will be leaving in mid-December to join the international training programme, held in Pune, India, with a second intake expected in March 2010.
Commenting on the initiative, Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Zensar Technologies, says: “The programme is not just about local skills development, but it is also a strategic initiative given Zensar's future plans in South Africa. We see this country as a potential centre for research, education and software development, and plan to invest significantly in developing global delivery capabilities here. This will be an important hub of development activities for all our new markets in the coming years.”
The programme will primarily equip students with crucial IT skills, such as software development and testing to ensure they are eligible for quality jobs. Training, which is the essential element of the programme, will be conducted at Zensar's headquarters in Pune, India, while internships will be at various client sites in South Africa. The programme aims to create 120 industry-ready individuals within the first year.
Harish Lala, country head, South Africa, says: “Our aim is to home grow skills to service local Zensar clients and increase our global capacity. By building a globally competent IT workforce, we can be part of the development of a world-class IT industry in South Africa.”
The programme will benefit stakeholders ranging from academia, emerging software developers, and both the public and private sector. It will include a three-month in-depth technical training module in IT management and will be followed by an internship for three months with a global organisation. The students will not only have an opportunity to further develop their programming skills, but will also learn about complex IT infrastructure designs and architectures. Further investments will also be made to place deserving candidates in Zensar's project teams for a nine-month period.
The South Africa programme is part of Zensar's Centre of Excellence (COE) programme and is focused on imparting quality IT education to students. “The objective of the COE programme is to enable IT workforce development and facilitate the creation of global clusters of services-oriented competence across the world. The programme focuses on familiarising students with services-oriented solution patterns, processes, problems and pressures so that we have access to a pool of globally employable talent. We have already productively run the COE programmes in India, Australia, China and Poland, and are keen to see the South Africa leg of this initiative succeed,” says Natarajan.
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Zensar Technologies (www.zensar.com)
Zensar Technologies is among the top 25 software services providers from India. Zensar is the world's first enterprise-wide SEI CMM Level 5 company and now a CMMI Level 5 company with industry expertise that spans retail, manufacturing, banking, insurance, utilities and education. Zensar has nearly 5 000 employees with sales and operations presence across US, UK, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Middle East, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Japan. The company delivers comprehensive services in mission-critical applications, enterprise applications, e-business, BPO and knowledge services. The company has developed tools and methodologies, including the proprietary Solution BluePrint (SBP), which enables its clients with innovative business solutions and a rapid 'go-to-market' capability. The company supports Fortune 500 clients with software business solutions that help them compete in the digital economy.
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