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Early-career programs enable tech companies to invest in the future workforce via upskilling and education.

Commencing a profession in technology right after high school can be daunting and challenging. This challenge becomes more complex, especially when you are about to decide to join such a program right after class XII.

TechBee – HCL’s Early Career Program is a specialized program from HCLTech, a leading tech company that provides opportunities for individuals starting in the tech industry. The program is a unique blend of classroom and on-the-job training components. It offers a wide range of resources and support systems that can help individuals build their skills, gain experience, and ultimately launch their careers in technology.

Here are a couple of reasons which make TechBee – HCL’s Early Career Program a compelling choice for class XII students:

Financial Independence: One of the most significant advantages of this program is the financial independence it offers students. Students do not have to worry about arranging a hefty fee as they can get loans from financial institutions with which HCLTech has tie-ups. Further, students are paid a stipend of INR 10,000 per month during the internship, which covers their out-of-pocket expenses.

Higher Education: Imagine, after class XII, you do one year of TechBee training, and then while you work as a full-time employee of HCLTech, you can pursue higher education from some of the leading universities like BITS Pilani, Amity University, KL University, IIM Nagpur, IIT Kottayam and SASTRA. Now, while your friends would graduate from college and start looking for a job, you will have a higher education degree and four years of experience. What’s more, HCLTech also partially funds the cost of higher education these students undertake. Isn’t that awesome?

Assured Job with HCLTech: This is an advantage that only a few other programs can offer. HCLTech offers this course to Class XII completed students and post-completion of the program; the job opportunities are with HCLTech only. TechBee is an exclusive job program for individuals seeking full-time jobs after high school. Candidates undergo 12 months of training for entry-level IT jobs and, on successful completion, start their career in entry-level roles across Software Engineering, Infrastructure Management, Test Engineering, Design Engineering and Digital Process Operations at HCLTech offices across the globe.

Mentorship: Students who join this program get access to mentorship and guidance. Participants in the program are paired with seasoned professionals in the industry who can offer advice and support as they navigate the early stages of their careers. This can be incredibly helpful, particularly for those still learning and trying to figure out the best path forward.

Real-Life Projects: Another essential aspect of the TechBee – HCL’s Early Career Program is the opportunity to gain hands-on experience. Participants in the program can work on real-world projects and collaborate with senior professionals in the industry. This knowledge transfer is a valuable experience and helps individuals build their portfolios, which can be crucial when starting work.

HCLTech first introduced this program in 2017; since then, thousands of students have joined and benefitted from the program. To know more about the program and watch the success stories of the program alumni, please visit www.hcltechbee.com

Early-career programs enable tech companies to invest in the future workforce via upskilling and education.

We live in a tech-enabled world, but for organizations to advance world-changing innovations, they need skilled people who can build, install, and maintain the systems that underlie them. Finding that talent is one of the biggest ongoing problems — and opportunities — in tech.

The IT staffing shortages brought on by covid-19 and the Great Resignation are still affecting companies today. In a poll of global tech leaders conducted by MIT Technology Review Insights, 64% of respondents say candidates for their IT and tech jobs lack necessary skills or experience. Another 56% cite an overall shortage of candidates as a concern.

A 2021 Gartner survey of IT executives shows that a majority — 64% — believe the ongoing tech talent shortage is the most significant barrier to the adoption of emerging technologies. By 2030, more than 85 million jobs might go unfilled, “because there aren’t enough skilled people to take them,” according to Korn Ferry. Without that talented workforce, companies could lose out on $8.5 trillion in annual revenue.

Companies are all looking for ways to address this talent shortage in the short term. As the Great Resignation has given way to a Great Reshuffle, with tech employees — including those affected by the tech layoffs of late 2023 and early 2023 — seeking new roles that meet their needs for flexibility, work-life balance, and career growth, some employers have seen the opportunity to differentiate themselves with their career offerings. They compete fiercely to offer the best salaries, benefits, and working conditions; court freshly minted university graduates as well as experienced talent; and bring on contract and temporary workers to bridge the gap.

But tech doesn’t just need short-term bridges. It needs long-term solutions. That’s why some companies are looking earlier in the pipeline — and even building their own pipeline. Innovative tech leaders have begun targeting less traditionally qualified candidates, including those who have just finished secondary school, and they are cultivating that future potential through new early-career programs.

A new approach to early-career candidates
For many people, the traditional path from education to career has followed a linear trajectory: Graduate high school. Go to college, university, or trade school. Get a job. But that approach has its risks — both for students and for potential future employers.

For students, the cost of a university degree can be reason enough to pursue a different path. The College Board reports the average U.S. in-state student pays $10,740 per year for tuition at a public, four-year college (plus an average of $11,950 per year for room and board). According to the same data, the average student will take out $30,000 in loans to earn a bachelor’s degree.

Those prohibitively high costs have impacted diversity within the tech industry. Students who can’t afford a tech degree don’t go to school, and then they don’t join the industry. Further down the line, when future students don’t see tech leaders who come from backgrounds similar to their own, they may opt for a different path.

To deal with the talent shortage, HCLTech is breaking the traditional path by adopting a long-term vision strategy focusing on the entry-level workforce. The TechBee initiative not only offers financial independence to students but also an opportunity to pursue higher education and an assured job after the completion of training.

Highlights

• “What’s being taught in engineering schools is sometimes 10 years behind the current tech landscape,” says S Balasubramanyan, SVP, HCLTech.
• TechBee is an HCLTech’s early career programme that was conceptualised in 2017 to help students kickstart their careers early.
• The programme participants, including those from non-traditional backgrounds, can develop the exact skills in the tech industry and they get employment ahead of their college education.
• Interns who are able to successfully complete the defined milestones get converted to full-time employees. Later, HCLTech’s Tuition Assistance Programme helps them complete graduation of relative choice from the partnered universities.

If a professional degree cannot offer what the industry demands, there’s definitely a systemic issue with the present education modules. In a poll of global tech leaders conducted by MIT Technology Review Insights, 64 per cent of respondents say candidates for their IT and tech jobs lack the necessary skills or experience. Another 56 per cent cite an overall shortage of candidates as a concern.

According to Subbaraman Balasubramanyan , Senior Vice President, HCLTech, talent shortage comes primarily because skills keep changing and the talent that’s required to acquire new skills and deploy to a productive workforce in the shortest possible time is not available in plenty.

To deal with the talent shortage, HCLTech is breaking the traditional path by adopting a long-term vision strategy focusing on the entry-level workforce. The TechBee initiative not only offers financial independence to students but also an opportunity to pursue higher education and an assured job after the completion of training.

Highlights

• “What’s being taught in engineering schools is sometimes 10 years behind the current tech landscape,” says S Balasubramanyan, SVP, HCLTech.
• TechBee is an HCLTech’s early career programme that was conceptualised in 2017 to help students kickstart their careers early.
• The programme participants, including those from non-traditional backgrounds, can develop the exact skills in the tech industry and they get employment ahead of their college education.
• Interns who are able to successfully complete the defined milestones get converted to full-time employees. Later, HCLTech’s Tuition Assistance Programme helps them complete graduation of relative choice from the partnered universities.

If a professional degree cannot offer what the industry demands, there’s definitely a systemic issue with the present education modules. In a poll of global tech leaders conducted by MIT Technology Review Insights, 64 per cent of respondents say candidates for their IT and tech jobs lack the necessary skills or experience. Another 56 per cent cite an overall shortage of candidates as a concern.

Subbaraman Balasubramanyan, Senior Vice President, HCLTechIf a professional degree cannot offer what the industry demands, there’s definitely a systemic issue with the present education modules. In a poll of global tech leaders conducted by MIT Technology Review Insights, 64 per cent of respondents say candidates for their IT and tech jobs lack the necessary skills or experience. Another 56 per cent cite an overall shortage of candidates as a
concern.

According to Subbaraman Balasubramanyan, Senior Vice President, HCLTech, talent shortage comes primarily because skills keep changing and the talent that’s required to acquire new skills and deploy to a
productive workforce in the shortest possible time is not available in plenty.

“In the case of the IT industry, the new technology keeps coming every two to three years. Thus, what we need is the right kind of talent that has a natural flair and advantage to be a part of the technological change that happens in the shortest time and implement these in varied business situations,” Balasubramanyan says

To deal with the talent shortage, HCLTech is breaking the traditional path by adopting a long-term vision strategy focusing on the entry-level workforce. A statement from the company says, “By relying on the same talent pools the tech industry has always drawn from, organizations risk stagnating and missing out on unrecognized brainpower. This is where early-career programmes can make an impact.”

TechBee is an HCLTech’s early career programme that was conceptualised way back in 2017 to help students kickstart their careers early. The programme includes 12 months of classroom plus online training culminating in a paid internship at HCLTech. The programme participants, including those from non-traditional
backgrounds, can develop the exact skills in the tech industry, and get employment ahead of their college education. “This experiment has been giving us some success as an organisation and we are able to acquire skills that are new and upcoming. We select candidates right after their twelfth grade and we skill them to what we want for a year. Post the internship, they get converted into full-time employees and they are asked to join the universities partnered with us,” Balasubramanyan says.

The currently partnered universities with HCLTech are Sastra University, BITS Pilani, Amity University, IIM Nagpur, IIT Guwahati and Koneru Lakshmaiah University. The universities offer courses like BSc, BCA, BBA, integrated MBA, and so on. Most times, the candidates have the freedom to choose the course based on their academic interests. But in some cases, the universities have their own eligibility criteria which include the candidate’s performance.

Making a significant remark, Balasubramanyan says, “What’s being taught in engineering schools is sometimes 10 years behind the current tech landscape.” The point of building a workforce at the entry level is that the twelfth-pass students can be productively engaged in the business context. The students learn contemporary software development lifecycles, computer science, coding, security and compliance protocols, and other skills not typically taught in school. They also get ‘soft skills’ training to bolster their professionalism, communication and understanding of corporate structures.

Over the years, thousands of students have joined this programme. Balasubramanyan says, “It is a win-win situation for students with the entire package of early career, paid internship and higher education. Barring a few exceptions, where students are unable to clear our assessments or have to withdraw from the programme for health or personal reasons, we find a very high 98 per cent and above conversion rate.”

“We have been in the industry for more than 40 years now and whatever is required for that job alone is taught in this one-year programme. This is helping us bring a diverse workforce to the company. And, the ability to solve customer problems gets enhanced because of the strategy that we have. We believe we are more up-to-date and abreast with where we want to be on people function culturally within the organization,” he says.

HCLTech is also running similar programmes across countries like the US, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. These programmes are in different stages of evolution as each geography has its own requirements, and modifications are made in the programmes adhering to the law of the land, local business and skilling requirements.

“We invested in new talent at HCLTech, ramping up our entry-level hiring from 5,911 in FY19 to 22,859 in FY22. In FY23, HCLTech hired 26,734 freshers, with a good portion of people (over 18%) recruited through its unique TechBee programme. This initiative involves hiring the best high school graduates worldwide and providing them with relevant skills to perform assured entry-level IT jobs within HCLTech while enabling them to pursue university education through partner institutions,” concludes Balasubramanyan.