PUNE, India, October 1, 2008 - Global Talent Track Ltd (GTT) announced its ambitious plans to transform skills building in India by providing high quality learning opportunities to over five lakh students annually by 2012. GTT today also announced a comprehensive program with Pune University in collaboration with Cisco®, the worldwide leader in networking, which will be the first major initiative in this area.
Launching the company at a function in Pune, Dr Uma Ganesh, CEO of GTT and a veteran in private sector education in India said, "We have developed a comprehensive Skills Pyramid model which will provide Awareness starting with high schools and junior colleges, Employability at the college level and GTT's own centers which will work with industry partners to provide employment to fully trained vocational entrants and managers."
Vice Chancellor of Pune University, Dr Narendra Jadhav said, "Skill building is the need of the hour and I am delighted that this pioneering initiative will transform the future of our students, including those who have had no access to quality learning in the past."
Vice President, Cisco Globalisation Centre, Bangalore, Toby Burton said, "Combining online and classroom instruction exposes students to best-in-class relevant content. It also creates the opportunity to develop the skills around collaboration and teamwork that employers value."
The program for Pune University envisages providing vocational skills to tens of thousands of undergraduate students to make them employable when they complete their Bachelor's degrees and will have three distinctive advantages:
1.It provides access to high quality learning content in a variety of areas in the college classrooms through the deployment of world class content specifically developed for the purpose using the best technology and pedagogy for distance education and learning facilitation.
2.It brings together the capabilities of global multinationals like Cisco, entrepreneurial ventures like Global Talent Track, and enables access to national certifications from bodies like NASSCOM and the Insurance Institute of India to ensure certifiable skills to all students participating in the programs.
3.It provides access to all meritorious students by providing education scholarships to the underprivileged members of the community and ensuring a truly inclusive approach to educational transformation.
Given the collaborative nature of the initiative, it is expected that multiple content providers, technology providers and certifying agencies will be inducted as members of the consortium as the project spreads to embrace all the constituent colleges and all vocational areas which provide opportunities for new jobs in the fast growing economy.
The University has identified BPO with specialisation in Insurance, Banking, Procurement, Human Resource Management and Finance & Accounting as the first set of courses which will be rolled out to a hundred identified colleges affiliated to the University with an anticipated coverage of thirty thousand students. The introduction of new courses in areas like Retail, Hospitality, Healthcare, Media and Education is envisaged in the next phase of the program.
The learning model is based on the constructivist theory of learning which enables students to learn at their own pace with adequate reinforcement when they encounter difficulties. A blended learning approach where seventy percent of the content will be delivered through technology and the balance through facilitation on site, addresses the traditional problems of poor teaching which has plagued the quality of education in the country through the years.
