Hyderabad|India|January'2009: PurpleLeap, a pioneer in entry level talent management, has announced the launch of its operations in Andhra Pradesh. The Company will offer Skill Enhancement Programs for students at PurpleLeap Career Centres set up in association with various colleges in Andhra Pradesh. These Centres will develop as a one-stop solutions for Career Management and Skill Development needs of students as well as Training and Placement needs of colleges. PurpleLeap is in the process of setting up its Career Centers in more than 10 colleges across various cities in AP.

PurpleLeap makes the investment in establishing Career Centres at colleges and trains students at the colleges itself (so the students don’t have to go anywhere else for any other program). PurpleLeap will start with Career Programs for basic professional skills (Communication, Problem-solving) as well as specific programs for different entry-level roles across industries such as IT, KPO, Telecom. PurpleLeap plans to train around 20,000 students in 2009; with AP accounting for a major chunk.

It is well known that India has a shortage of skilled labour. Despite the present slowdown in the economy, the requirement for skilled professionals is only likely to go up; and the gap between demand and supply of such man-power is also expected to widen. Even in the short-term, when employment growth may slow down, it is pertinent to observe that students with a better employability quotient will be better positioned to exploit the opportunities (limited compared to previous years) that are available. PurpleLeap aims to bridge both gaps; the gap in availability - requirement of skilled manpower (estimated to be in the range of 5,00,000 knowledge and service professionals by 2012) as well as the gap between existing skills and desired skills among graduating students.

PurpleLeap is backed by Educomp Solutions Ltd., country’s largest technology driven Education Company, as a strategic investor. PurpleLeap programs will make full use of proven Educomp expertise in delivering large-scale technology enabled learning solutions. In addition, PurpleLeap uniquely focuses on training delivery in the colleges itself by setting up technology driven career centres. This will help combine academic learning with insightful skill-building for industry application.

Elaborating on the programs Mr. Amit Bansal, CEO, PurpleLeap, said, “Our programs combine domain expertise with world-class learning methodologies that result in meeting learners’ objectives to align them to industry expectations. Our unique hybrid delivery model leverages the strength of various technologies to deliver a world-class learning experience, while keeping the fee affordable. Technology enables access to high-quality interaction with industry experts– particularly beneficial to students from B and C cities. Corporates, not only get ready-to-deploy talent but also achieve deeper penetration in their search for high-quality talent, going beyond those located in a few metro centres.”

PurpleLeap services include the complete talent lifecycle ecosystem of assessment, skill enhancement and industry partnership for talent absorption. PurpleLeap has corporate partnerships to leverage the Career Centres and help acquire quality and ‘readily deployable’ talent and drastically reduce hiring and training costs. This also ensures that colleges that have PurpleLeap Career Centres, and students thereof, have more opportunities for recruitment.

The State of Andhra Pradesh accounts for over 20% of the graduate students and over 35% of engineering students in the country and has clearly been at the forefront of India’s IT growth. The NASSCOM-KPMG report projects Andhra Pradesh to achieve Rs.69,000 crores in software export turnover and seeks to create employment for 3 lakh employees by the year 2009. Recognising this potential, PurpleLeap chose to start its operations first in AP, ahead of all other states in the country.

PurpleLeap’s expansion plans include immediate forays into Karnataka and Tamil Nadu; and to the rest of India by the end of the year.

Reachout's News Bureau
 January' 2009