Tata chief praises NBN, urges more IT industry skills
- 03 September, 2009 14:53
- Comments
Australia needs a national broadband network to drive innovation and compete on a global scale and universities aren’t doing enough real-world industry training of students. They are the views of Varun Kapur, the Australia and New Zealand general manager of Indian outsourcing giant Tata Consulting Services.
Kapur said today’s leading engineers are trying to avoid roadblocks and building a national broadband network for Australia would “remove a lot of barriers”.
“People will be able to work to drive innovation [and] regional parts of Australia will become brighter with broadband,” Kapur said.
“I’ve traveled from Sydney to Cairns and seen the small towns. What type of Internet access do remote communities have today? The NBN will produce a lot of creative ideas that people living in urban areas might not think of.”
TCS has about 140,000 staff in 50 countries. Kapur is an 18-year veteran of the organisation and came to Australia two years ago.
Speaking at the Australian Computer Society’s Young IT Professionals Conference in Sydney, Kapur cited analysis work done in Sydney for the IPL cricket tournament and Tata’s work with Qantas to enable online ticketing and check-ins for overseas destinations as examples of IT services globalisation.
Locally, Tata has recruited some 150 people in the past two years and hires graduates by building relationships and going to universities for internship programs.
“We need to look at the university curriculum [as] it needs to be more aligned with the needs of industry,” Kapur said, adding the talent is right, but in recent years the uptake of IT has been low and more agility is important.
“I’m not being critical of the universities, there just needs to be more alignment with industry.”
Tata also collaborates with the ACS to get access to the “finite amount of talent”.
“We run the Insight Program every year with the Smith Family to train high school students from under privileged backgrounds,” Kapur said. “We put them through our boot camp and with 17 students this year and I’m very proud of it.
“If you can catch them young you can lead them to IT. In fact about 70 per cent of the students consider IT as a career path.”
The ACS predicts a skills gap of 25,000 workers by 2020 and Kapur said: “As an industry, all of us have to do more.”
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
-
The 30 best Safari extensions -- so far
-
Apple and Google disagree over licensing of essential patents
-
Monash Uni reduces IT teams after consolidation project
-
FTC warns makers of background checking apps
-
QLD govt demands answers after pay glitch
-
Protecting Generation Web
From data privacy to personal safety issues, cyber-bullying, inappropriate content and malware, schools are facing an increasingly difficult task when it comes to allowing young people to spread their online wings without compromising their safety and personal development. The reality that most schools are catering to the needs of mixed age groups and abilities, and it’s easy to understand why a simple stop and block approach won’t work. Learning environments are, by nature, flexible. It stands to reason that the IT resources used in them should be flexible too. Read on. -
Oracle Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing From Storage to Scorecard
Getting actionable data in the hands of the right decision makers translates to positive business outcomes – whether that means competing more effectively, reducing operational costs, meeting compliance requirements, or anticipating changing market conditions. To get the right data to the right people at the right time, you need an integrated business intelligence and data warehousing solution that can provide fast access to reliable information and the tools to translate that insight into actions. -
Email Encryption/Decryption and Signing integrated into a comprehensive content security solution
Clearswift’s SECURE Email Gateway provides an easy to use approach to providing secure email conversations. The technology enables customers to provide the privacy, authenticity and integrity of the communication that secure messaging offers, but without the complexity and high administration cost of other systems. The Clearswift SECURE Email Gateway with integrated encryption technology enables business to communicate with confidence and protects them from the risk of sensitive data loss.
Get exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis. 
Comments
Post new comment