Tech Mahindra to foray into education

MUMBAI: Tech Mahindra, a joint venture of Mahindra group and British Telecom, seems to have found a unique way to address the manpower shortage and wage inflation problem — by getting into the education business itself. The company has decided to set up an engineering college, Mahindra College of Engineering, that will equip engineers with the skills required in a ‘fast changing global scenario’.

“One of the projects on our anvil is the establishment of a Mahindra College of Engineering that will tackle these issues with innovative engineering education,” chairman Anand Mahindra said at the software firm’s first AGM after it went public in August, 2006. Mr Mahindra termed skills shortage as the most daunting challenge that the IT industry was facing today.

“It’s not merely the quantitative lack of engineers, it is also an issue of whether engineering education as it exists today, anywhere in the world, is truly equipping engineers with the new, softer skills that they require in the very fast changing global scenario. It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness,” he said addressing shareholders.

While training itself is not new to most Indian software firms, which have large campuses and structured training programs for freshers inducted into the company, this is probably the first time a top tier software firm is setting up an engineering college itself.