Infosys Parners With IIIT-B To Improve Employability Of Students From Socially Disadvantaged Communities

Infosys Technologies Limited (NASDAQ: INFY) today announced that its ‘Special Training Program’, (STP) conducted in partnership with the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT- B) has been a success. The pilot initiative was aimed at enhancing the employability of students from socially disadvantaged communities to enable them to compete on an equal footing.

The 7-month program was conducted from October 9, 2006 to April 30, 2007. With the assistance of the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Karnataka, 90 students were selected. From this batch, 76 students have already been placed with leading IT companies like IBM, EDS, HP, Mindtree, Wipro and Infosys.

Commenting on the success of the initiative, Prof. S. Sadagopan, Director IIIT - B, said, “This program showcases the benefits of affirmative action. These students were sound academically but lacked the technological exposure and skills to help them find jobs in good companies. We have trained them on certain technologies and skills that would make them more industry-ready.”

Corporate sponsors of this initiative such as Infosys, HP and Canara Bank also participated in the recruitment drive held at the end of the program. Commenting on the quality of students graduating from this program, Mr. T.V. Mohandas Pai, Member of the Board and Director-Human Resources, said, “This initiative enables students from socially disadvantaged communities to participate in the growth of the IT industry. These students were graded using the same stringent norms used by Infosys internally for assessing the performance of our trainees. The average performance of the STP batch is comparable to a typical batch at Infosys.”

This initiative and its learnings have been documented in the form of a ‘knowledge book’, which will allow the model to be replicated in other cities.