Chennai: In an attempt to create awareness about Internet, proper use of electronic gadgets like cell phones, Nasscom, in association with ministry of human resource development (MHRD), has planned to train school students in cyber safety. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on the sidelines of the Nasscom HR summit on Thursday, Dr Sandhta Chintala, vice-president of Nasscom and executive director of the IT-ITeS sector skills council at Nasscom said that today children use cell phone and Internet without knowing the dangers of it.
“We want to create awareness among children about the safe use on Internet and gadgets, like cell phone. Cyber security is very critical as one pays bill online, transfer funds, so we are now focussing on cyber forensics and cyber security,” she said, adding that students in classes 9 to 12 across the country would be trained in cyber security. Nasscom is drafting the syllabus for the course, which will be released by National Council of Educational Research And Training (NCERT) March next year.
“We are also working in schools to provide computer skills to students and make them job ready. Some companies say that they can recruit those who had passed class X or XII for jobs like junior software developer, biometrics data operator and IT desk help attendant,” Dr Chintala said. Pointing out that last year Nasscom trained three lakh school students across the country, the Nasscom vice-president said of the three lakh, 1.5 lakh got certified and 62 per cent even got employed.
The industry body has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Anna University to launch foundation skills and integrated product development course as elective in fifth or sixth semester for engineering students. The elective will be a mix of mechanical tools, software tools and electronics, besides help student create a product. “We will be training about 2,000 faculty from all engineering colleges, who will, in turn, teach their students,” she added.
IT hiring to go up by 6 per cent: Nasscom
Nasscom, the industries body for software companies, has said that hiring in the IT sector would go up by 6 per cent this year. The six per cent growth in employee hiring this year will be in addition to its current strength of 3.5 million employees, of which one-third are women, Nasscom president R. Chandrashekhar, said during an interaction with reporters at the two-day Nasscom HR Summit on Digital Highway -HR’s journey into the future.
“Seventy five per cent of the global IT workforce will be under the age of 35 in 2025. The IT industry has accomplished a lot over the last couple of decades and is growing quite significantly,” he said on Thursday. While releasing the HR in the Digital Age annual HR survey 2015, Chandrashekhar said that 55 per cent of talent comes from tier-2, 3 and 4 cities in the country.
The survey also revealed that 58 per cent of companies were looking to recruit more laterals who are already working in other companies as part of their overall hiring this year. Interestingly, 45 per cent organisations have preferred social media and online job portals for hiring and only 14 per cent chose campus placement.
Asked why fewer companies prefer campus placement, Chandrashekhar said the survey depicts the overall hiring scenario, including lateral hiring. “Recruitment in campus takes place only once a year whereas it can be done online all through the year,” he added.
The Nasscom president said IT companies also do background checks for employees using social media. India is a leading nation in the field of digital technology in terms of talent availability, Chandrasekhar said and added that it was important to recognise that people run an enterprise and not technology and gadgets.
