The British Council commissioned Arthur Andersen to make a first assessment of the training and education services likely to be required by the rapidly developing Indian telecom sector.

The study brought out the following
l The estimated size of the Indian telecom market is £4,500 million, and is expected to grow at 15-20 percent per year for the next few years. Public operators’ share of this market is likely to decrease as private players further establish themselves. Growth and change in the industry imply that companies will need new skills to build their businesses and to remain competitive.

l Demand for IT professionals in India is strong and growing as the industry expands and new skills are needed. The shortage in trained and skilled manpower requirements in the electronics and computer disciplines would be close to 235,000 professionals in the year 2001–02 (assuming 30 percent of the total supply would be acceptable to the industry). Hard data on total training spending is not available, but is estimated to be of the order of £55 million.

The study concluded that there is a need to enhance
l Availability of advanced training options and existing training infrastructure
l Awareness of training benefits
l Training standards
l Industry participation

The study identified a number of institutions providing telecom training
a. The Department of Telecom operates 44 centres training 50,000 employees every year at an annual cost of some £14 million

b. Other training providers include:

l Indian Institutes of Technology and Regional Engineering Colleges, as part of engineering degree programs
l Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management as part of MBA in Telecom Management
l Societies/Public Sector Undertakings of Department of Electronics
l Institution of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineers
l Centre for Networking and Telecommunications Professionals In addition, the Government of India has recently established a number of Institutes of Information Technology. A number of state governments are similarly active. The study suggested the following areas where UK institutions’ strengths are most likely to be applicable in India:

Basics of Communication Networks: Telephony network, transmission systems, switching, network control, and wireless Communication Management: Change management, leadership, entrepreneurial, and legal and regulatory

Intelligent Networks: AIN, SS7 for IN, wireless and VoIP, and digital subscriber lines

Sales: Customer care, and marketing IP Networking: Internet protocols, VoIP, and TCP/IP

Financial: Billing systems, and credit management

Emerging Technologies: Advanced intelligence networks, wireless mobile networks, wireless Internet access, 3G wireless communication, basics of PCS, frame relay, ATM, IP, SONET, etc.

Use of technologies such as audio/video conferencing, computer based training for distance education offers the potential of significant cost savings in comparison to on-site training.

Source: www.getconnecteduki.com