Jobs galore for Kerala's CATFOSS pass-outs

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA: The Centre for Advanced Training in Free Open Source Software (CATFOSS), IT Kerala’s initiative to promote the use of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) in the State, has seen success with the first batch of FOSS-skilled professionals placed totally in various government and private firms.

This is the first time in India, that a State Government has taken the initiative to promote use of Free Open Source Software in their e-governance initiatives and introduced a course to develop FOSS skilled professionals. The FOSS course is open to those who have B Tech, BE (Computer Science), IT and Electronic and Communication, Electrical, MCA or MSc (Computer Science/IT) degree from any recognized university in India. The course fee has been fixed at Rs 50, 000.

The six-month course announced in early 2009 had initially 11 students and all of the students have found placements. CATFOSS has announced the second batch of the course from November 2009 onwards and the institute already has received over 75 applications wherein half of the applications have been received from outside Kerala from Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan.

Ajay Kumar, Kerala’s IT Secretary, said “FOSS has been playing a pivotal role in building a truly egalitarian knowledge society. It is our intention to develop Kerala as a FOSS destination in the country, considering the growing economic opportunities happening around FOSS and CATFOSS is a step in this direction.” He added that a number of e-governance initiatives would require FOSS trained professionals. “With the number of projects being planned in FOSS, the need for such professionals will be on a rise and we internally want to vet this need through this course. A lot of government departments are also proposing their staff to enhance their skills in FOSS as well,” he said.

According to Rathan Kelkar, Director, Kerala State IT Mission, “We have formulated a time-bound policy for transforming the state into an inclusive knowledge society. A conscious step to propagate and institutionalize a platform based on FOSS is a major component of this policy along with promotion of FOSS through an International Center that will work towards resolving IT issues and act as a consultancy agency for various government organizations in Kerala to help them adopt FOSS in their e-governance plan.”

“To realize all these plans, the need to have a FOSS talent pool was inevitable and the course was introduced to fill this need. We are extremely happy at the turnout for the second batch and hope to see more people getting interested to join this course in future,” he added.

CATFOSS is a joint initiative of KSITM and CDIT. It plans to share its expertise with various institutes and universities to develop and frame curriculum introduce FOSS programs, an official pointed out.