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IT major Wipro today announced the launch of a nation-wide initiative, the Wipro Integrated Skill Enhancement Program (WISE Pro) to impart communication and soft skills training to undergraduate students. This will be predominantly for non-engineering colleges in India, with the aim of improving employability in the Information Technology, Business Process Management (BPM), as well as other services sectors.
The pilot program of the WISE Pro initiative has been introduced to the student community at Kolkata-based Techno India Group. Wipro plans to extend this program nationally to over 5000 students by the end of FY14 and especially, make in-roads into smaller centres in India, besides the large cities.
Students who successfully complete the program will be awarded a certification, post an assessment by Wipro. The certification will enable the candidates to be eligible for a placement at Wipro, if they are able to successfully clear one round of interviews as opposed to 3 or 4 levels of screening usually followed while recruiting fresh graduates at the company.
The 60-hour program consists of technology backed modules in a self paced format, that give the students the flexibility to work through the modules over a period of 3 months, along-side their core graduation course. In addition to the e-learning modules, the programme has periodic classroom connect programs, wherein the students can interact with trainers. The IT-ITES Sector Skills Council (SSC), NASSCOM has provided valuable guidance in designing the curriculum and training methodology of the program.
Sandhya Chintala, Executive Director, Sector Skills Council, NASSCOM said that it is imperative that companies, academic institutions and the government work closely towards improving the employability of young people in India and help to scale up a readily deployable talent pool. Chintala added that the aim is to align the WISE Pro programme with the SSC NASSCOM guidelines outlined for CRM job roles.
Subhasish Biswas, Head – Business Excellence, Wipro BPO (A Division of Wipro Ltd.) said, "This initiative is an employability enhancement program that will endeavour to train students for the services sector where high levels of communication and presentation skills are required, in addition to basic domain knowledge. It aims to improve the soft-skill based competencies, foster professional skills and thereby, enhance the employability of youth for various service sector domains."
