Comments
To boost their image and get more business from Europe, Indian tech companies have started eyeing talent from Germany.
For the first time, Indian tech companies have started going to campuses in Germany to recruit local talent. Companies such as Wipro, Cognizant, L&T Infotech, Prion and multinationals such as Capgemini and SAP have hired 25 interns from Germany to work on offshore projects. TCS and MindTree are also planning to recruit junior level talent from Germany.
This is part of the ‘Vibe' programme initiated by Prof Karl Kurbel from the Virtual Global University at the University of Frankfurt Oder and Mr Peter Schumacher, CEO of Value Leadership Group, an offshore advisory firm.
Companies that have signed for Vibe will have interns spend three months in India, followed by three months in Germany at the client site. This is the only initiative that is Europe-focussed and specifically on winning junior talent for the offshore IT services industry.
Although IT majors such as Infosys have hired interns from tech colleges in the US and the UK, this is the first time that the Indian IT sector is looking at Germany, thus making its talent pool more diverse.
‘Vibe' aims to provide undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to experience the global delivery model in action and build understanding of the inter-cultural issues of working in India and with Indian companies.
GROWING DEMAND
“Currently, freshers with global delivery experience cannot be found in the German market and this programme aims to close this gap,” Mr Schumacher told Business Line . There are plans to provide 50 German students paid internship opportunities at leading IT services companies in India on a yearly basis. Industry watchers say that the number of computer science graduates in Germany is increasing and the demand is growing at a fast clip.
Germany, at present, employs about six lakh software engineers and 58 per cent of German firms are concerned about talent shortages in IT, which is resulting in more off shoring to destinations such as India, according to Value Consulting. Also, according to German IT Association, unemployment in Germany in the IT industry is 3.1 per cent and tech companies are positioning themselves as job creators.
With a slowdown in IT spending in most of the large banks in US, Indian firms have already started looking at Europe, which at present contributes to 30 per cent of their revenues. Indian firms are losing out on outsourcing business due to lack of sufficient knowledge of local industries and are trying to address that problem, said Mr Schumacher.
According to a Nasscom report, Indian companies are earning less than $2.6 billion from this region as against the addressable market size of more than $53 billion.
>venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.