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UK welcomes TCS’ internship programme By Joao Lima/ Computer Business Review
Unveiled during India’s PM UK visit last year, the scheme is first project of a wider program that aims to take up to 25,000 British young people to India by 2020. Last night, government and private sector came together to officially launch 1,000 internships in India for UK graduates under the Generation UK-India program. The scheme was first announced during the visit of India’s PM Narendra Modi last November, when he and PM David Cameron signed £9 billion worth of deals between the two countries. As part of the agreements, the PMs agreed that 2016 would be the UK-India Year of Education, Research and Innovation. The internships have been arranged under a partnership between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and the British Council (BC). The program will give British hopefuls a year of training at TCS,
where they will work at its Innovation Labs and software development centres across India. The Rt Hon Priti Patel, Minister of State for Employment and MP, said: “Endorsed by Prime Ministers Cameron and Modi, Generation UK-India is a highly ambitious programme run by the British Council.” The Generation UK-India program aims to build collaboration, engagement and trust between the two countries, by supporting up to 25,000 young people in the UK to gain work and study experience in India by 2020. Speaking of “exciting times for India”, Patel said: “I am delighted that this year, as part of this growing programme, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will now be providing UK students with the opportunity to undertake 12 month paid digital internships in their offices around 17 locations in India. “By working in India, graduates will be learning new skills from experts in business. They will build their own networks. They will de-
Priti Patel
velop new ideas. It will provide your students, your future employees, and our next generation with a competitive edge. “And, as well as developing business acumen, it will also provide a full immersion into the world’s largest democracy and a rich, diverse and modern culture.” To enter the program, graduates, particularly those interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, have to apply
online through the British Council website. Applications are open until midnight on March 31, 2016, with the first graduates to fly to India during the summer. Although the internship is paid for and those in the scheme will receive a monthly allowance of INR35,000 (£356 as of February 10), successful candidates will have to pay for their flight to India, Visa, a £300 placement fee, travel
insurance, vaccinations and accommodation. British Council CEO, Sir Ciaran Devane, said: “India is a giant economic and strategic power, with deep and broad links to the UK. “It is vitally important in this interconnected age that we do not ignore our historical connections, but seek to embed them still further, using the power of modern technology. “The end result of this project - and many other projects between our nations - will be enhanced cultural and economic (and personal) relations between the UK and India.” Also attending the ceremony was Shankar Narayanan, Country Head UK & Ireland, TCS, who said that emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and virtual reality are likely to enter the mainstream in the coming years, each with as much potential (if not more) to transform everyone’s lives as the advent of social media, mobile computing or Big Data. He said: “This digital future is bringing with it major opportunities: according to the Boston Consulting Group, the UK’s Digital Economy is already the largest of the G20 nations, and it could be worth as much as £200bn per year by 2020. “The new partnership between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and the British Council is one example of how we are aiming to
Will BIS Sheffield closure frustrate David Cameron’s access goals? By John Morgan/ The Higher Education Times
By closing its Sheffield office, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills could be losing a “centre of excellence” in higher education policymaking and jeopardising the prospects of the Green Paper along with David Cameron’s goals on access. That is the picture painted by critics of BIS’ move to close down its building in the city, which puts at risk about 250 jobs, including those of about 40 staff working on higher education. The move has been presented as undermining the government’s “northern powerhouse” rhetoric in its relocation of jobs to London – and also has a potential impact on higher education. Nick Hillman, formerly special adviser to David Willetts in his time as universities and science minister, has already described the move as “a genuine tragedy for good public policymaking”. The Sheffield civil servants “hold BIS’ institutional memory on HE and often know more than the policymakers who are nominally closer to the centre of power”, the Higher Education Policy Institute director has written. And the BIS group of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has told me more about what they see as the potential impact on higher education. There are currently 38 staff working on higher education (although about five are already scheduled to leave on voluntary severance deals at the end of March). According to the PCS branch,
“almost all” are working on the Green Paper consultation. At a Universities UK conference Polly Payne, joint director of higher education in BIS, emphasised the volume of responses to the Green Paper and the length of time that it would take to get through them. If Jo Johnson, the universities and science minister, wants to get out a consultation response before a possible European Union referendum later this year, then the Sheffield closure won’t help. Part of the teaching excellence framework team is also based in Sheffield, as are the widening participation team and those working on “market entry” in higher education – all key priorities in the Green Paper. The prime minister has set out two goals in the area of widening participation: doubling the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education from 2009 levels by 2020, and increasing the number of black and minority ethnic students going to university by 20 per cent by 2020. If the PCS branch is to be believed, then there is a potential impact on these goals. At last week’s BIS select committee hearing on the work of the department, Paul Blomfield, the Labour MP for Sheffield Central, called the Sheffield office a “centre of excellence for further and higher education policy”. Staff will have to reapply for their jobs and no packages for relocation to London are being offered, he added.
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