Cognizant Technology Solutions has signed an MoU with Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), which will allow CTS employees to ‘learn while they earn’ by taking up an M Tech (Master of Technology) Programme in Software Development and Management offered by VIT. This is an exclusive programme designed for Cognizant, a US-based software company with large offshore development centres in India.
The two-year programme developed and designed jointly by a core team of experts from the University and Cognizant with a focus on both technology and programme management.
To begin with, 180 employees mostly in the junior level, of Cognizant will be enrolled in the first year. These employees will take up the programme at Vellore and also the Cognizant campus in Chennai, said the university’s pro-chancellor, Sekhar Viswanathan he told reporters.
The annual fee will be Rs 49,000, nearly half the amount charged in the regular university’s programme, will be borne out by employees. Employees with a Bachelor in Engineering degree with a minimum of 50 per cent score will be eligible for taking up the programme, he added.
For the employees of Cognizant, the course will be a combination of technology and management. This will help to stay relevant to the company’s customers and solve their critical business problems leveraging technology, according to the company’s chief people officer Shankar Srinivasan.
It will be a full time programme and the employees will be ‘doing justice to both at work and with the course. There is no service bond and we will not force the employees those completing the M. Tech course to stay back with the company,” he said.