With the economic downturn affecting the employability conditions in India as well, information technology (IT) firm SAP India said it is working with various institutes to train people for the future.

SAP, which provides enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, recently started working with institutes such as Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode and Shillong, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Kharagpur, and XLRI Jamshedpur, training students to work on its platform.

It said such initiatives will help companies that work on SAP solutions and they will not have to train the employees while on the job.

“The war is about talent — it’s not about our products, not about somebody else’s product, not about business models, because if one has the talent, they can work around them and stay ahead of the curve,” Suprakash Chaudhuri, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, SAP India, told Business Line .

For example, in Meghalaya, SAP is working with IIM-Shillong on taking e-Governance to the villages using its software, leading to transparency.

He said the company is aligned with the Government’s initiative to train people in skills that are required for innovation in various industries.

Focus on diversity

“The focus is around diversity and that is a big element we are trying to do – get younger people into the organisation. Fresh blood, out-of-the-box thoughts and they always challenge the status quo as it gives a different outlook when you are trying innovations,” he said.

Chaudhuri said it is also about getting talent from across the country, which gives a bigger picture of what the entire country is looking for in the future.

SAP India is providing its own trainers and instructors and education partners such as Atos and Genovate working on its Hanna suite. Atos India provides platforms to meet the demands of the constantly evolving SAP market, while Genovate Solutions provides SAP certification and consultancy services. This will be part of its education business, he said. However, unlike NIIT or Educomp, the company will not train students for general purpose education.

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