Infosys amongst world''s best in employee T&D

Bangalore: The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) has awarded the Excellence in Practice Award 2004 to Infosys Technologies' (NASDAQ: INFY) Global Business Foundation School. The award recognises training practices aligned to organisational goals.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, deputy managing director and chief operating officer, Infosys, said, "The spirit of learnability among our people and an organisational commitment to continuous personal and professional development keeps Infosys at the forefront of the fast-changing industry. Our framework for continuous learning at Infosys is built around a number of focused programmes for our employees. These range from major initiatives such as the Infosys Leadership Institute to various ongoing management development and personal improvement programmes. These complement a host of tech advancement and ongoing training options."

The Global Business Foundation School is a formal, structured programme to enhance technical and behavioral competencies of fresh engineering graduates. The school requires participants to integrate the technology, methodology, people and process elements. It thus comprises of generic conceptual courses, platform specific courses, mini-projects for application, and an end-term project based on real-life projects.

In addition to technical courses, fresh entrants are also exposed to courses on communication skills, interpersonal skills, customer interaction etiquette, management development and quality systems to enable fresh entrants absorb the important elements of the company's corporate culture.

Speaking on the school, Dr MP Ravindra, vice President, head — education and research, said, "Seventy-one per cent of all recruits in the organisation over the last 3 years have been fresh entrants, who graduated through this training programme. The Global Business Foundation School's uniqueness lies in its ability to act as an engine that supports the organisation's growth in the number of employees, preparing a highly competent workforce trained in both technical and behavioral competencies and providing our employees with a strong foundation for building a long-term career. We are happy to have shared our learnings with ASTD."

Last year, Infosys had won the first annual 2003 ASTD Best Award. The award recognises organisations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success as a result of employee learning and development.