Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Afflatus iLabs
Monday, March 09, 2009 02:21 PM IST (08:51 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest; Business: Accounting & management consultancy services, Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Education & training, Information technology; Technology
Release no: 19417
--------------------------------------------------
Indian Academia can now make their Graduates 'Global Workforce Ready' at Low Cost
Virtuosity to Build a National Skills Bank by Setting up 'Centres of Excellence' in Academia across the Country
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Monday, March 09, 2009 -- (Business Wire India) -- Afflatus iLabs, a technology innovations company of Alpha Education, has launched 'Virtuosity', a first-of-its kind skills building institute, in partnership with SkillSoft (USA), a global leader in e-learning for corporate training; and IKM (USA), SkillCheck(AUS), Walden (CAN), Versant (UK), world-renowned names in Corporate pre-hiring assessments. To help address the Industry-Academia gap, Virtuosity will, for the first time, make available the globally sought-after expert corporate services of these international companies to the Indian Academia at 1/8th the present cost.
Virtuosity will work with universities and colleges across the country in establishing 'Centres of Excellence' - Virtuosity Academy of Professional Excellence (Virtuosity APEX), to ensure that the students who are passing out are pre-trained, pre-assessed, pre-profiled and industry-ready, by supplementing the regular curricula with its "Global Workforce Ready System".
'Virtuosity National Skills Bank', a first of its kind in the country, will house 'Graduate Skills e-Portfolio' with Skills Audits by an automated Skills Map engine for each student, analyzed from their performance in the 'Global Workforce Ready System', providing universal access and life-long storage for their credentials. The Skills Bank will help the graduates find the right employers and the employers find the rightly 'skilled' graduates.
In India about 5 million graduates remain unemployed, at any point of time. The issue is not shortage of employment opportunities, nor availability of graduates, but shortfall of 'employable graduates'. A finding by McKinsey Global Institute says MNC's find only 25% graduates employable. On the other hand, a NASSCOM report foresees shortage of 500,000 knowledge workers by 2010. In Tamil Nadu, according to the report "Mapping of Manpower Skills for Tamil Nadu-2015", released by CII, 43% of graduates and 47% of diploma holders find it difficult to get suitable employment even after 2 years of graduation. The reason has been found to be the huge mismatch of skill-level of graduates and the demands of employment.
Virtuosity with its knowledge partners, will offer students its 'Global Workforce Ready System', a learning model developed to avoid skill gaps in graduates, and thereby fulfill the future needs of India's knowledge economy. Every semester students will be trained in four areas of skills: Technical Skills, Functional Skills, Life Skills and Soft Skills, while supplementing their regular curricula. Students will also be benchmarked against global standards in Technical Assessments, Aptitude Assessments, Personality Assessments and Soft Skills Assessments.
Virtuosity has a library of 6000 + courses, 2000 + curriculum reference books and 500 + skill assessments and certifications. Virtuosity also offers Colleges, an e-Library, with over 30,000 books all available at the click of the button, along with author summaries.
Virtuosity is the first to offer a wholesome solution in first equipping the students with international industrial training, then quantify their obtained skills with international assessments, and place them in the right job endorsing their skill sets in the National Skill Bank.
It is worth noting that Virtuosity's partners are training partners for India's top companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL and many others. Virtuosity is the first initiative to provide a long-term solution and the most affordable one too, to fix the unemployable graduates crisis and Industry-Academia gap, by empowering the Academia with these powerful blended Industrial e-learning solutions.
"The industry needs graduates who are workforce-ready. It does not want to invest time and money on them, especially, in this time of economic downturn and 'just in-time' hiring. The current situation states that, out of 3 million people added to the workforce every year, about 500,000 could be considered employable in the international corporate workspace. Even though there is recession, if students get industry ready with the right kind of competence levels, the opportunity to ensure a berth in the job market is prominent" said Dr. R. Palani, Chairman, Afflatus iLabs.
"Our main focus will be to work very closely with the colleges to supplement college education to avoid skill gaps in graduates. Virtuosity will develop Centers of Excellence in educational institutions located in major cities as well as in tier II cities and rural areas. In the first phase, we are looking to reach about 30,000 students to make them globally competitive and provide them good employment opportunities" said Mr. P. Shiva Prasath, Managing Director, Afflatus iLabs.
Afflatus iLabs (India)
Afflatus iLabs, the technology avatar of Alpha Foundation for Education and Research, aims to provide educational leadership as India's premier workforce development organization instilling educational excellence at all levels and partnering with academia, industry, government and individuals to develop a skilled community.
Alpha Foundation for Education and Research, since its inception in 1991, has been in the forefront of making world-class education available and affordable to all Indians. Alpha has made great strides in the three major areas of institutionalized delivery of education by harnessing contemporary technologies with the right human resources, revitalized curriculum that integrates acquisition of knowledge and skills, innovative instructional methodologies that ensure constructive engagement of every student, and radical evaluation strategies that profile students' true learning outcomes.
SkillSoft (USA)
SkillSoft PLC (Nasdaq: SKIL) is a leading Software as a Service (SaaS) provider of on-demand e-learning and performance support solutions for global enterprises, government, education and small- to medium-sized businesses.
Headquartered in Nashua, USA, SkillSoft enables business organizations to maximize business performance through a combination of comprehensive e- learning content, online information resources, flexible learning technologies and support services. SkillSoft's courseware is localized into 18 languages with products and services sold in 65 countries.
IKM (USA)
IKM (USA) provides knowledge measurement solutions and services including web-based assessments and applications that allow enhancing and optimizing hiring, training, project staffing, skill-gap analysis, benchmarking, career development and certification.
Known worldwide for its flagship solution IKM TeckChekT, IKM can produce an objective profile of skill, knowledge, attitude and aptitude of your candidates and employees to help you make the right decisions. Used by corporations, staffing agencies, training organizations, government agencies and schools worldwide, IKM is a subsidiary of Krest LLC, the largest private investor in education and training in the USA, and is headquartered in the US with offices and affiliations around the globe.
SkillCheck (AUS)
SkillCheck (AUS) provides performance-based and knowledge-based skill testing with over 800 tests - more than any other skill testing provider can offer - including the latest versions of Microsoft Office for clerical and office skills, word processing, spreadsheets, call centre, computer literacy, food services, retail sales, light industrial, typing, data entry, spelling, math, behavior profiling, accounting, medical and legal skills.
Walden Personnel Testing & Training (CAN)
Since 1977, Walden (CAN) tests have helped thousands of organizations understand more about the real abilities of their job applicants, incumbents and trainees. Walden has a different, job-related test for just about every position, and can design and validate any test for any purpose.
Versant (UK)
Versant's (UK) English tests measure speaking and listening language skills. As the leading tests of spoken language, Versant is being leveraged by Leading Corporations, Government Agencies and Universities.
CONTACT DETAILS
Mr. P. Shiva Prasath, Managing Director, Afflatus iLabs Pvt. Ltd., +91 (44) 42068805/+91 9940823075, shiv@afflatusilabs.com
KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, CONSULTANCY SERVICES, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, EDUCATION, IT, TECHNOLOGY
If you wish to change your Business Wire India selection please click on this link http://www.businesswireindia.com/media/news.asp and use your personal username and password to login.
Submit your press release at http://www.businesswireindia.com
No comments:
Post a Comment