BANGALORE: Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced that it would train students in top universities and engineering colleges in India, on upcoming technologies through a nationwide free training program. This is a voluntary initiative led by the employees of HP Systems Technology and Software Division (STSD) under the aegis of their University Program.

This program expects to train more than 300 students on latest technologies like advanced UNIX, software engineering processes, project life cycle management and others.

As part of the ongoing ‘Industry-Academia initiative’, HP has set up a ‘University Program Office’ in Bangalore to identify, establish and manage relationships with leading engineering colleges and universities. The program is designed so that students are engaged with industry professionals at the beginning of their fifth semester and will continue the relationship till the end of their curriculum. The objective of the program is to identify talent at an early stage, nurture them and equip them to handle projects in a professional environment.

HP-STSD pioneered the program with PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, with Advanced UNIX course, followed by JSS, Bangalore. Currently it is conducting Software engineering course in more than ten colleges all over India.

The University Program Office enrolls students from leading institutions in India like the BITS Pilani, IIIT Bangalore, RV College of Engineering, BMS College of Engineering, JCE Mysore, JSS, Bangalore, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, MIET Jammu, NIE Mysore and Kurukshetra Rourkela and provide student project opportunities after the training.

“As a part of the training program, HP will bring forth industry expertise and domain knowledge and share a common platform with the students to update and train them on the next generation technology concepts in the Indian IT industry" said, KM Shyamkrishna, general manager, Hewlett Packard India Software Operation Pvt Ltd. “In the long run, we aim to integrate this program as an elective subject of the universities course.”

Speaking on the program, Professor Jawahar, managing director, PESIT said, “We would like to thank Hewlett-Packard for this unique initiative to identify and train our students at a very nascent stage of their career. This initiative will boost our continuing efforts to provide quality education and equip students to face the challenges in the industry. The program will help them understand technology in real time practical environments.”