HP charts a course for 'more employable' graduates

The standard of students entering the IT sector at the entry level in India is well below the industry requirements, especially when it comes to testing of softwares being developed by IT majors.
Now, Hewlett-Packard wants to bridge this gap with a software university, one that will make students industry-ready.

Explaining the rationale, Michael Garrett, vice-president of WW Software Professional Services, HP, said, “We are seeing a big demand for skills in the application space. Clients are not only saying that we need this many people to do the job, but also saying that we want this kind of outcome to be delivered. The emphasis is much more on the outcome than how it is done.”

Garret, who was in the city recently, said, “What we are trying to do in this market is not only provide the technology that reduces the dependency on skill but also build up more skill in the market to use that technology itself.” This is where the new “software university” comes in.

The idea, he said, is to build a programme for university graduates which not only tells them about the principles of testing but actually trains them in the tools as well. So when they come to the market for jobs they are much more attractive to an employer. Because, they not only know how to do it (the job), they have the skills in the tools that allow them to do it efficiently too.”

Giving the backdrop, he said, “We looked at the end-to-end cycle and realised that what we need to do is feed the very source. So, we need to be developing talent at the earliest possible point around our software technology. When those students come to the market they will be much more employable. The people who employ them will see them productive much more quickly, and they will also know the latest technology that is being used by clients.”

This six-week project, which had a rather low-key launch in April, has trained about 2,000 students so far. Third and fourth year engineering students can participate in this course, that was conceptualised at HP’s Bangalore centre. According to Rajesh Prabhakaran, vice-president of professional services (Asia-Pacific and Japan) of HP Software, elaborated, “In the past, the emphasis of solutions was to put more people on the problem. Now, the focus is on how to better harness technology so that one can get a quicker time to market, or how one can get reduced price points for a better outcome.”

Prabhakaran said, “The other thing that has happened is that people are becoming more focused on acquiring the right talent pool. They are becoming more demanding in that they want access to a talent pool that can understand the technology as well.”

The course,  the market
HP has partnered with various resellers like Seed Info Tech, in Maharashtra State (western region), Simplilearn (northern region) MPS Info tech (eastern region), STC Technologies (southern region) to reach the students. And the delivery will be done directly by HP to ensure the quality.
HP in Bangalore

25% of the global workforce of HP Software Professional Services organisation is working in the India and China centres. 60% of this is in India across Bangalore and Pune. HP plans to increase this workforce by 20% in the next year.

8-10% of the work gets offshored to India centre currently and HP plans to increase this in the next few years owing to quality consistency, high skill and process optimisation achieved here.

Of software testing and market demand
Software testing is one of the emerging areas in the IT industry which is rapidly growing.
Increased competition and customer demand has made software testing a key operation which demands nowadays top talents and pay packets

The software-testing arena would require 250,000-300,000 professionals in the next 2-3 years as per a IDC report and NASSCOM 2020 Outlook Report. The key reason for this boom is due to the mobile, BYOD (bring your own device) and internet explosion and penetration. 

In a survey by Dataquest and STeP-IN, it was found that testing in India is one of the key revenue generators for IT service organisations. More than 80% respondents reported full-time or dedicated testers for 70% or more of test activities.