IBM India and NIIT announce scholarships

NEW DELHI: IBM India and NIIT have launched the first ever ‘IBM-NIIT Scholarships’ for IT professionals and students enrolling for IBM Certification courses at NIIT Centers for Advanced Technology Studies (CATS) in India. The IBM-NIIT Scholarship will provide an opportunity to over 750 meritorious students to gain the competitive edge by acquiring the globally accepted IBM certification.

The application forms for the scholarship aptitude exam are available at all the NIIT education centers across New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai and the test will be held on September 28, 2002. Based on their performance in the aptitude test and an interview, IBM would award the successful students, scholarships ranging from 25% to 100%. After successfully completing the programs, students can take the certification exams without any extra fee at any of the authorized IBM NIIT CATS centers in these cities.

The scholarship would be offered on the following short duration (2-6 weeks) programs - IBM Certified Solution Expert (DB2 UDB Application Development) and IBM certified Solution Developer (Core Java, Servlets and JSP Development for Websphere)."The IBM-NIIT Scholarships will help create a pool of ‘relevant, industry-ready’ IT professionals who will be equipped to cater to the specialized industry needs. With a large number of companies in India relying on IBM software for building and deploying enterprise-wide e-business applications, the opportunities are immense", said Frank Luksic, Country Executive, Software Group & Developer Relations, IBM India.

Pradeep Narayanan, Head of NIIT’s Education Business said, "In the fast evolving world of IT, your are either clued in or left behind. The professionals trained by NIIT CATS are skilled to develop applications and support IBM and its customers worldwide on the emerging technologies. The IBM-NIIT Scholarships will offer students the opportunity to upgrade their skills and stay ahead of their peers," he added.