The Hindu Business Line : Nasscom offers to certify IT job skills of students

Chennai, July 5 Encouraged by the success of its Assessment and Certification Programme (NAC) for the BPO sector, Nasscom is considering a similar testing and accreditation offer, NAC Tech, for the IT services, according to Mr Kiran Karnik, Chairman, Nasscom.

Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of the two-day Nasscom HR Summit 2007 that began today, Mr Karnik said NAC-Tech is likely to be launched this academic year. The aim was to make NAC-Tech an industry standard to evaluate students aspiring to find jobs in the technology/engineering industries.

NAC-Tech will also help the IT industry, academic institutions and individual colleges to understand the potential of their students and determine their calibre in terms of industry relevance and employability. NAC-Tech could become an alternative to the internal tests done by companies, he said.

The NAC was launched as a pilot last year for the BPO sector to ensure transformation of a “trainable” workforce into an “employable” workforce. The pilot was rolled out in Rajasthan where 2,500 people took the NAC test. By the year-end, NAC for BPO will be rolled out in various States, including Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, North Eastern States and West Bengal, he said.

Mr Karnik said revenues from the Indian IT industry is likely to double to $60 billion by 2010. The industry will provide direct job opportunities to around 11 million from 3 million, and indirect jobs would be four-five times more, he said.

India currently has 347 institutes of higher education and 16,885 colleges with a total enrolment of 9.9 millions. These produce around 495,000 technical graduates, nearly 2.3 million other graduates, including commerce, and over 300,000 post graduates every year.

“But, the major concern is that the right kind of people is not available for the industry. A majority of people do not have necessary technical and soft skills to be readily employable after college,” he said.

India’s emergence as a preferred outsourcing destination has created the need for 2.3 million professionals by 2010. Based on current estimates, a shortage of 0.5 million skilled knowledge workers may arise if remedial action is not taken, says a Nasscom release.

Mr Karnik called for educational reforms to allow corporates to enter the sector. “If reforms could be introduced in hospitals, why not in education,” he said.

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