HCL is Hiring Them Young

High school pass outs now have a shot at the jobs college graduates dream of. Going a step ahead of its competitors, Hindustan Computer Limited (HCL) Technologies is offering employment opportunities to the high school students.  HCL plans on hiring class 12 students and train them to become software engineers. Their goal is to give the students an opportunity to work on development projects, which in turn would help them with knowledge and let them gain expertise in core areas.

HCL Technologies is India’s fourth largest software service exporter and now plans to poach fresh talent straight out of high schools. Starting this April, the Noida-based firm will hire 200 students for a year and absorb them in entry level jobs.

Getting into the program?

An average of 80% in class 12th board exams is required by the CBSE students whereas any other student needs to score a minimum 85%.

Benefits

The program provides an academic course lasting 9 months and on-site training that would last for 3 months. Half of the students will undergo this year-long training in HCL’s Lucknow campus and the rest half in Madurai. The students will be taught application development, application support, infrastructure management services and software testing. Moreover, all the students would be awarded a certificate in Information Technology by SSN College of Engineering and would be hired by HCL itself at an annual salary of 1.8 lakhs.

In a collaborative venture, the recruited students would also get an opportunity to pursue a BSc degree from SSN College of Engineering through a weekend program.

This program is also an opportunity for students with weak financial background and has the potential to tap into the needs of rural students having early career aspirations.

Despite the significant shift in India’s IT sector from traditional to digital technologies, only around 2% of India’s population is considered skilled. Due to the lack of technical knowledge, an overwhelming majority of the country’s graduates are considered unemployable.  If done right, such in-house skilling programs would lead to better models of apprenticeship and groom a professional development culture in India and such prior training to deserving students would enrich the talent pool in the country.