Sustainable Initiative to Contribute to Skills Development within the South African IT Industry

Wipro Ltd, a leading global Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing company recently announced the launch of its second Internship Programme in South Africa. The programme involves the recruitment of 40 graduate students from disadvantaged backgrounds providing them with specific in-house training and subsequent deployment on active projects of Wipro in South Africa.

Recruitment of the second batch of interns is now complete, and training started earlier this month. Selection to the internship program was based upon clearing an objective assessment that tested the analytical, mathematical and basic English language capabilities of the candidate, followed by personal interviews. Project readiness training will be conducted by Wipro’s global talent transformation team, covering both technical and behavioural aspects, over a period of three months.

The overall curriculum has been designed to bridge the gap between campuses and the company, and covers dedicated modules on Oracle ERP, BPC, SAS and other topics that are in demand with Wipro’s customers. The interns will also be trained on project readiness by a team of trainers from Wipro’s global talent transformation team, covering both technical and behavioural aspects, over a period of three months. Once the interns have completed their training, they will be interviewed by project delivery managers for an apprentice role on a number of live projects. Once placed, the interns will receive supervised on-the-job training and mentorship for a further three months, during which their performance against various parameters will be tracked on a fortnightly basis. The performance records will be reviewed and qualifying interns will be absorbed into Wipro’s operations in South Africa.

Deepak Jain, Senior Vice President and Global Head, Work Force Planning and Development, Wipro said, “Our aim is to employ as many interns as possible on completion of the programme. We have therefore aligned the training content with projects that we are currently involved in to ensure that the skills developed through training are in demand and that the interns can be readily employed.”

Shailendra Singh, Business Director of Africa Region, Wipro said, “Wipro recognises that skills development and localisation are high on the agenda of both the IT industry and the government of South Africa. We have also received excellent feedback from our customers on this initiative, and are proud to continue our investment in a program that recognises and promotes the growth of future IT leaders in the region.”

Wipro has made further investments in this programme following the successful completion of their first batch of interns earlier this year. Of the 23 interns who were part of the first programme, 20 were placed on live projects following the internship. One of the interns has also had the opportunity to travel to India, to receive training for an additional two and a half months.