24x7 Learning launches “SkillBridge”, an employability enhancement program Initiative to address the critical shortage of manpower in IT and ITES segments.

24x7 Learning launches “SkillBridge”, an employability enhancement program
Initiative to address the critical shortage of manpower in IT and ITES segments.

Bangalore, October 18, 2006: 24x7 Learning, the largest e-learning implementation company in India and winner of the prestigious Red Herring Asia 100 award, today announced the launch of “SkillBridge” - an employability enhancement program. The program aims to upgrade the behavioral and IT skills of fresh engineering and management graduates across India in order to make them truly employable. The program comes as India Inc. gears to face its biggest challenge ever - a talent shortage of 500,000 knowledge workers by 2010 (NASSCOM McKinsey report) compounded by the fact that only 25% of fresh engineers are employable by the multinationals. An 8-month program, SkillBridge focuses on imparting the skills required to make the balance 75% employable. The Program aims to prepare the graduates by imparting critical skills like communications, personality development, team work, spoken English, interview preparation etc. delivered in a blended and interactive manner (multimodal simulations, quizzes and on-site workshops). The company plans to train around 20,000 students under this program this fiscal.

Launching the program, Karthik K S, Founder & CEO, 24x7 Learning, said, “SkillBridge is a significant step forward in the industry’s attempt to bridge the widening manpower demand and supply gap. It will help India Inc. to sustain high levels of growth by being able to hire skilled manpower. We also believe that the cost of recruitment and training will come down significantly once the program takes root and gains wider acceptance. We invite IT and ITES companies, who have the need to hire aggressively, to actively participate in SkillBridge initiative.”

Anil Chhikara, Co-founder and President, 24x7 Learning, said “Our focus is primarily on the engineering colleges in the Tier II and Tier III cities where the job-placement records are low due to the students’ skill gaps. Besides helping these students acquire the skills required, we will help them get employed with the leading corporates. Our existing relationship with 6 of the top 10 IT companies and 7 of the top 10 ITES companies will help us achieve this goal. SkillBridge will thus help the educational institutes increase their placement records and enhance its branding.”

Bangalore-based 24x7 Learning with regional offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, supports corporates and educational institutes in their manpower demand and supply challenges. Having been involved in implementing and providing eLearning solutions to companies like Wipro, Patni, MindTree, Bharti Airtel, Xansa, Aditya Birla, Accenture, Convergys, Philips, 24/7 Customer, eServe, Murugappa Group etc., 24x7 Learning has deep understanding and knowledge required for leveraging eLearning to prepare the skilled manpower India Inc. needs to fuel its growth. Please visit http://www.24x7learning.com for details on the company and http://www.skillbridge.in for details on the new program.