Trainers’ Paradise

The British Council commissioned Arthur Andersen to make a first assessment
of the training and education services likely to be required by the rapidly
developing Indian telecom sector.

The study brought out the following

l The estimated size of the
Indian telecom market is £4,500 million, and is expected to grow at 15-20
percent per year for the next few years. Public operators’ share of this
market is likely to decrease as private players further establish themselves.
Growth and change in the industry imply that companies will need new skills to
build their businesses and to remain competitive.

l Demand for IT professionals in
India is strong and growing as the industry expands and new skills are needed.
The shortage in trained and skilled manpower requirements in the electronics and
computer disciplines would be close to 235,000 professionals in the year 2001—02
(assuming 30 percent of the total supply would be acceptable to the industry).
Hard data on total training spending is not available, but is estimated to be of
the order of £55 million.

The study concluded that there is a need to enhance

l Availability of advanced
training options and existing training infrastructure

l Awareness of training benefits

l Training standards

l Industry participation

The study identified a number of institutions providing telecom training

a. The Department of Telecom operates 44 centres training 50,000 employees
every year at an annual cost of some £14 million

b. Other training providers include:

l Indian Institutes of Technology
and Regional Engineering Colleges, as part of engineering degree programs

l Symbiosis Institute of Telecom
Management as part of MBA in Telecom Management

l Societies/Public Sector
Undertakings of Department of Electronics

l Institution of Electronics &
Telecommunications Engineers

l Centre for Networking and
Telecommunications Professionals In addition, the Government of India has
recently established a number of Institutes of Information Technology. A number
of state governments are similarly active. The study suggested the following
areas where UK institutions’ strengths are most likely to be applicable in
India:

Basics of Communication Networks: Telephony network, transmission systems,
switching, network control, and wireless Communication Management: Change
management, leadership, entrepreneurial, and legal and regulatory

Intelligent Networks: AIN, SS7 for IN, wireless and VoIP, and digital
subscriber lines

Sales: Customer care, and marketing IP Networking: Internet protocols,
VoIP, and TCP/IP

Financial: Billing systems, and credit management

Emerging Technologies: Advanced intelligence networks, wireless mobile
networks, wireless Internet access, 3G wireless communication, basics of PCS,
frame relay, ATM, IP, SONET, etc.

Use of technologies such as audio/video conferencing, computer based training
for distance education offers the potential of significant cost savings in
comparison to on-site training.

Source: www.getconnecteduki.com