(We are thankful to Dr. S. N. Singh, our Training and Placement Officer, for providing us with the necessary information)
Cognizant Technology Solutions has taken the initiative to fill the gap between academic output and industry demand. The demand for quality students has had the IT companies queuing up at leading colleges and at times even recruiting them even before they graduate. However, there are a few companies that look at colleges as more than being just `talent pools'. Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) is one of them.
With its `Back2Campus' program, the IT major is putting in place industry-academic linkage for mutual benefit. Under the Memorandum of Understanding, CTS will arrange Student workshops/Guest lectures at college premises to generate students with the necessary industry orientation in information technology. CTS will also institute best student and faculty awards. All this and more comes as a part of the MoU signed between CTS and IT-BHU in August 2007. The MoU is signed initially for a year, which may be renewed.
Academic Interface Programme is the company's initiative aimed to fill the gap between academic output and industry demand. The industry has to take the initiative to ensure that students get better training at their colleges itself.
An article in Economic Times about Cognizant’s Back2Campus Program
Cognizant finds new brand ambassadors in employees
8 Jan, 2008, 0008 hrs IST,Sutanuka Ghosal, TNN
KOLKATA: With 16,000 new recruits in 2007 globally, Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) can hardly rely on campus placements alone. The software major has launched a Back2Campus programme encouraging its employees to visit their respective colleges as CTS brand ambassadors to interact with students. The mission is three-fold — to look out for prospective recruits, share industry knowledge and increase their employability.
Talking to ET CTS human resources vice-president Bhaskar Das said: “Our Back2Campus is not entirely a recruitment programme. According to Nasscom, 25% engineering graduates are directly employable by the IT industry and 15% can be groomed to be made employable.
This is one such initiative to groom these 15% graduates who can be trained to meet industry needs. By interacting with their college seniors who are working with Cognizant, students gain a better understanding of industry requirements which helps them make a smooth transition from the campus to the corporate world.”
Incidentally, CTS had projected that its the global headcount would increase to 55,000 by December 2007 as against 38,000 in the beginning of the year.
The final figures will be released shortly by the software major. Commenting on CTS’ initiative, senior IT professionals said: “Each year, the great Indian recruitment yatra of IT companies gets fiercer with major domestic and global players vying for the right talent by often devising new strategies that go beyond mere campus recruitments. Cognizant’s initiative is one such move.”
During 2007, Cognizant visited nearly 150 B-schools and T-schools for recruitment and campus recruitment will continue to be the top priority. However, initiatives like the Back2Campus brings in the added advantage of reaching out to talents in institutes that are not on the regular list on one hand, while on the other, the alma mater bond helps forge strong ties that translate into new talent coming on board.
To create campus brand ambassadors and recruiters, Cognizant has also instituted the “Campus Bandwagon” initiative. Under this programme, experienced campus ambassadors interact with a new batch of ambassadors and share their experiences and learning. “We have also developed an e-learning module on campus recruitments. Every recruiter is required to complete it before stepping out for campus recruitments,” said Mr Das.
CTS has also signed a memorandum of understanding with 30 select colleges across the country to create rapport with aspiring IT professionals. For instance, it has tied up with Calcutta University, BHU and Jalpaiguri Govt Engineering College among others. “More such MoUs are in the offing,” Das added.
Meanwhile, on Friday, CTS tied up with Singapore-based linguistic services provider Nihongo Bashi to offer training in Japanisation skills to some of the company’s 2008 batch of campus recruits.
The first batch will consist of 25 third-year engineering students from Kolkata’s St. Thomas College of Engineering and Technology, who will avail of a six-month Academic Japanisation Programme (AJP) in Japanese language, business and management, designed specially for the business needs of the IT industry.