SA IT graduates learn a lesson in humility when they go to India for their 12-month internship, as they find themselves one of many in the teams they are allocated to, said Chittaranjan Jena, Satyam Computer Services country manager.
Speaking late last week at the "Doing Business in Africa" conference, at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business, Jena said the sheer number of IT graduates that his company trains dwarfs SA's entire output.
"This year we plan to take 16 000 IT graduates from around the world as part of our internship programme. Compare this to the approximately 12 000 people who graduate with IT degrees and diplomas in SA. It means we can take the entire graduate class for one year and a little bit more," he said.
India produces around 224 000 IT graduates every year, Jena said, and this investment by the country and business in education has helped it develop its ICT sector.
Satyam has sent two classes of South African IT graduates to its head office in the Indian city of Hyderabad. The first group of 12 has since returned; a second group of about 16 are currently there and a third group is being recruited.
Jena said the internship consists of three months of intensive training in a programming language of the graduate's choice. Once that is completed, the intern is allocated to a task group and has a mentor to guide him or her.
"We believe in one-on-one mentorship in order to ensure the intern gets the most out of the programme," he said.
South African IT graduates are inclined to think they are at the top of their profession once they have completed their university training: "They immediately expect to be given a team and to earn a high salary. However, once they get to India, they find themselves just one of a group of, easily, 400 IT professionals, and that is certainly a lesson in humility."
However, Jena said the South African IT graduates score well in their realisation that they need to keep studying in order to improve themselves.
According to Jena, Satyam's strategy when moving into a new market is to create an employee mix with an equal proportion of local and Indian developers in order to fit in with the local culture and business needs.
"IT services is a people business and we have to develop and invest in the resources," he said.
Satyam's South African clients include Standard Bank, Caltex, Shell and the Provincial Government of Limpopo.
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