Empowering Women in IT's corporate bridge programme Future Ready to mentor children for IT
KOCHI: They do the odd jobs to keep one of the largest IT hubs, the Technopark, run smoothly. But for the many support staff at the Technopark, the dream remains for their kids to reach heights and join the league of IT professionals. Countless queries get shot off at the employees of Technopark on how their children will get to live the ‘great techie dream’. ‘Future Ready’ will address just that.
Pioneered by the local chapter of Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) at Technopark, Future Ready attempts to act like a finishing school which will mentor the children of the support staff in Technopark and make them ready for the IT field. The corporate bridge programme is being supported by other organisations in Technopark like DISHNA, Technoparktoday.com, and Prathidhwani, among others.
“It is set to act like a finishing school,” says Radhika Viswanathan, vice president of eWIT. “We often encounter many academically brilliant children of the support staff but in most cases, they lack the confidence. The programme will train those who are keen on joining the IT field with the basic skills. Once groomed, they can flourish well,” she says.
The pilot batch will start with 20 IT aspirants from September. The training will be administered at Technopark campus for free in a staggered manner. The 24-hour training will be given over a period of two months. “We have a module which we follow for the corporate bridge programme. We follow this when we take classes outside. This 24-hour training programme will be imparted to them,” Radhika says. The classes will be taken by expert HR trainers. As many as ten trainers will lead the classes. “There are many Technopark employees who are keen to volunteer as trainers. They will be trained and then roped in as trainers,” she adds.
The career guidance and skill training programme will focus on final year college students and those who finished their graduation. Companies in Technopark will be roped into the programme. “The aim is to ensure that they get to be placed within six months after the training,” Radhika says.
“The idea of this social intervention programme is to uplift the standard of living for those who work in the background and bring them also into the mainstream,” she adds. Technopark has more than 800 support staff working and currently, the process is on to identify youngsters keen on joining the IT field. The data collection began last month and by August end, the filtering process will also be complete, the organisers add.
“We get plenty of CVs from the children of the support staff. We are trying to bring a structured methodology wherein there is a proper system in place with the involvement of the companies whereby they get jobs. It is envisaged as a continuous process,” says Radhika.
At present, as many as 300 forms have been received. The official launch of Future Ready will be held on Monday at the inauguration of the ‘Nammude Ponnonam 2018’ initiative.
Future Ready
The programme, pioneered by the local chaptor of Empowering Women in IT (eWIT), attempts to act like a finishing school
It will mentor children of the support staff of the IT hub and train them with the basic skills required in the IT field