U.S. To Train 3,000 Offshore IT Workers
Federally-backed program aims to help outsourcers in South Asia become more fluent in areas like Java programming—and the English language. Though President Obama has pledged to create more hi-tech jobs in the U.S., a federal agency operated by a hand-picked Obama appointee has started a program worth of $36 million to train workers in South Asia, 3,000 specialists in IT and related functions included. After the training program, the tech workers will be delivered to outsourcing vendors in the region, which provide offshore IT and business services to American companies that look to take advantage of the Asian subcontinent’s low labor costs. Under director Rajiv Shah, the United States Agency for International Development will cooperate with local private outsourcers in Sri Lanka to teach workers there advanced IT skills, such as Enterprise Java (Java EE) programming and skills in business process outsourcing and call center support. USAID will also be dedicated to help the trainees improve their English language proficiency. About $10 million is being contributed by USAID to the effort, while other roughly $26 million is from the investment of private partners. “To help fill workforce gaps in BPO and IT, USAID is teaming up with leading BPO and IT/English language training companies to establish professional IT and English skills development training centers,” Sri Lanka, the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, said in a statement posted Friday on its Web site. “Courses in Business Process Outsourcing, Enterprise Java, and English Language Skills will be offered at no charge to over 3,000 under- and unemployed students who will then participate in on-the-job training schemes with private firms,” the embassy added. In addition, as Sri Lankan is still under recovery from a 30-year civil war that ended in 2009, USAID is cooperating with its companies in other industrial areas to help create 10,000 new jobs in the country, including construction and garment manufacturing. However, the outsourcing program is sure to draw the most fire from critics. While Obama admitted that occupations like garment making don’t contribute much to push forward the U.S. economy, during his presidential run he ceaselessly argued that lawmakers needed to do more to keep hi-tech jobs in IT, biological sciences, and green energy in the country. Besides, he criticized the Bush administration that had created tax loopholes that made it easier for U.S. companies to place work offshore in low-cost countries. Last Monday when speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Atlanta, Present Obama stressed his efforts to reduce offshoring. He claimed that he has implemented “a plan that’s focused on making our middle class more secure and our country more competitive in the long run — so that the jobs and industries of the future aren’t all going to China and India, but are being created right here in the United States of America.” In January, President Obama tapped Shah to head USAID. During this appointment, Shah, whose experience in the development community included senior positions at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said the organization needed to pay more attention to help developing countries build technology-based economies. Shah said during his swearing in ceremony, “we need to develop new capabilities to pursue innovation, science, and technology.” Outsourcing is rather a fresh industry in Sri Lanka, but it develops rapidly as it begins to receive work from neighboring India. Apart from homegrown firms, it’s attracting investment from Indian outsourcers who are looking to expand beyond increasingly expensive tech hubs like Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. In 2007, the country was listed by consultants at A.T. Kearney as 29th on their list of the top 50 global outsourcing destinations. [Source] Software Outsourcing Blog Section: http://www.unisoftchina.com
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