The Hindu Business Line : A finishing school with a difference

Success story Over 6000 students from 164 engineering colleges were trained in 2005-2006 at Jawahar Knowledge Centres this year and 1,258 students have already been recruited.

Hyderabad , May 29

At a time when barely five per cent of engineering graduates are found to be employable, an innovative public-private-participatory initiative that serves as a finishing school, has managed to make a world of difference to engineering graduates, mostly women from semi-urban and rural background.

Their transformation at this finishing school called Jawahar Knowledge Centres (JKC), where they get trained and work for few months, is such that it has turned a happy hunting ground for IBM, Satyam, Infosys and Computer Associates to name a few.

Over 6,000 students from 164 engineering colleges were trained in 2005-06 at JKCs this year and 1,258 students have already been recruited. Over the next couple of months, all of them are likely to land jobs.

In comparison, even some of those who are among toppers in their respective engineering colleges, often do not find jobs with these companies.

The Secretary, Information Technology and Communiation, Andhra Pradesh Government, Ms Ratna Prabha, said, "What started about a year ago with 32 centres has gone up to 43 centres now. And we would soon announce the expansion of this project to not just more centres but also to cover non-engineering students, who could potentially find employment in BPO (business process outsourcing) companies."

Of the 1,066 girls chosen by these JKC centres in 2004-05, and trained in 32 centres, 235 students were inducted by multinational companies, and 831 were inducted by IT companies. During 2005-2006, about 6,058 students were trained in 43 centres. The success stories of JKC abound. It has begun to spread and the Government plans to expand the scope of these centres. Several States are now looking to replicate this model.

AJKC serves as hub where students from nearby engineering colleges converge to both learn and work on live projects. Run by the Institute for Electronic Governance (IEG), a society under the IT&C Department and is supported by free grants and software inputs from Oracle, IBM, Microsoft.

Enthused by the progress made by these JKCs, Infosys Technologies has offered to provide training to mentors, who would be provided two week intensive training. They, in turn, will have the capability to train over 12,900 students. These students learn in groups.

Thus far, IBM has recruited 151 students, Satyam (483), Infosys (154), Wipro (406) and other MNCs (49) and the recruitment process continues. As a part of the ongoing programme, efforts are on to broaden the scope of this initiative, according to Prof. Ghanta Subbarao, State Chief Information Officer.