Karnataka setting up IT finishing schools

With less than 35 per cent of engineering graduates found “employable” by the Information Technology (IT) companies, Karnataka Government has taken the initiative to start IT finishing schools that provide graduates training in communication skills, corporate culture as well as technical skills.

Speaking to reporters here, Secretary to Karnataka Government’s Department of Information Technology (IT) and Bio Technology (BT) M N Vidyashankar said the Government had tied up with the private sector and academic institutions to start IT finishing schools in Bangalore and Mysore near here.

While the IT finishing school in the Mysore, which will be first of its kind in India, will start functioning from next month, the IT finishing school in Bangalore will be thrown open to interested graduates by August this year.

The IT finishing school in Mysore will recruit 5,000 candidates during the first year and gradually increase the intake. The intake of Bangalore institute will double that of Mysore’s school. “The intake will be increased to 25,000 next year and doubled to 50,000 in the next two years”, Vidyashankar said.

The Government’s initiative to start IT finishing schools comes in the wake of a consultancy firm coming out with report on the employability of engineering graduates. “Only 35 per cent of the graduates are found employable by the IT companies at present. We want to take the figure to 75 per cent”, he said and added that the IT finishing schools were “an answer to the requirements of the IT industry”.

With four to five IT companies being set up in Bangalore every week, adding to the existing 1,790 companies, the demand for manpower in the IT sector was expected to shoot further up. “There is a demand for 110,000 IT graduates in Karnataka alone during 2007-08”, Vidyashankar said.

Though Karnataka produces engineering graduates in big numbers, there is a huge gap between demand and supply with companies looking for skilled and specialized manpower, he said.