IT JOB

Nasscom has been repeatedly highlighting the manpower crunch for IT (information technology). There used to be a time when computer-training institutes were ubiquitous. Not so now, it seems.The drop in global demand for IT professionals following the dotcom bust and the US economic slowdown in 2001 led to a shake-out in the computer training industry in India. As a result, many of the training institutes closed down, leading to a fall in the throughput capacity. Meanwhile, the growth of the industry has led to a huge requirement of human power. The IT-BPO (business process outsourcing) industry will recruit about 3,00,000 persons this year, many times the requirement 10 years (or even five years) ago.The Nasscom-McKinsey Report 2005 projects that - at the current pace and quality of talent generation and education — India will need an additional 5,00,000 professionals just to maintain its share of the global IT and BPO industries. This assumes that the suitability of engineers for IT jobs and graduates for BPO jobs remains 25 per cent and 10-15 per cent, respectively, for the next five years and that India continues to increase output in higher education at the current rate of 6.5 per cent per annum. It also assumes that 80 per cent of engineers will be willing to work in IT jobs, and 50 per cent of graduates to work in BPO. This also assumes the attrition out of the BPO industry will be matched by an inflow from other industries.CAREER