CAIRO: Nearly 500 students graduated from the Information Technology Institute's (ITI) nine-month interactive training program on Monday. The program provides a select number of applicants technical and skills building training in an effort to cater to the market's need for high-caliber professionals. "It is with great responsibility and honor that we offer these students to the society, ITI Chairman Mohamed Salem announced at the start of the 27th graduation ceremony. The 482 students celebrated the completion of the extensive program period and their new jobs, which they secured thanks to the skills and contacts they acquired at ITI. The ceremony was held under the auspices of Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamel. ITI was founded in 1993 by the Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), dedicated to paving the way for the evolution of a knowledge-based society by developing a new generation of professionals. Due to its role in the IT field, in April 2005, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif transferred the affiliation of the ITI to the MCIT. Every year, 5,000 graduates of any discipline apply for ITI's training program, which offers 14 different specializations. After extensive written and oral tests, only around 500 are chosen. In response to market needs, ITI enhanced the training program to "increase graduate's soft skills by offering 900 hours of training, Ahmed Darwish, ITI Deputy said. The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Program was ITI's pride and joy this year. "We [customized] our training programs to fill the gap in the IT sector. Workshops were held with businesses in the field, as well as one-on-one meetings, to determine the modules that will be added to the nine-month program based on what the market needs, Iman Raslan, ITI business development manger told The Daily Star Egypt. This helps the job market by "saving time spent in training the employee after he/she is hired, Raslan said. As a result, 41 companies offered job opportunities to graduates this year, and ITI saved some for themselves, hiring several of the graduates to teach future programs. Advanced Computer Technology (ACT)'s Senior Marketing Manager Mohamed Abul-Leil told the Daily Star Egypt that they had hired 14 students that had trained with them this year for their upcoming Terminal 3 project. After completing this project, the employees will go on to work in other company projects, such as Marsa Alam's Port Ghalib. The results obtained through the KTP program would have been impossible without the participation and cooperation of IT companies. During the program, students actually get to train at one of KTP's partner companies. The KTP Program includes technical training in systems development, quality assurance, mainframe, UNIX, GIS Oracle, Java, e-commerce and information security. Following several documentaries about the graduate's efforts during the program, MCIT Minister Kamel addressed the students, parents and members of the IT community. "We are experiencing a 20 percent boom in the [IT] industry in all domains including infrastructure, broadband, Internet and mobiles. This is considered one of the highest increases in the world, he said. Kamel cited that the number of mobile subscribers is increasing by one million every month. The IT sector is highly dynamic and the "quality of ITI students must maintain and aid the boom the sector is experiencing, especially because this sector has brought in LE 25 billion in profits, Kamel said. The MCIT has decided to increased the number of ITI graduates from 500 to 1,000 every year. Moreover, training centers will be established in Assiut and Mansoura as well as the Smart Village, in addition to the centers already present in Cairo and Alexandria, announced Kamel. Kamel also talked about Business Process Offshoring (BPO) and the Knowledge Process Offshoring (KPO), which he said will take Egypt's IT sector to a new level. Due to the high cost of trained IT employees in the US and Europe, these countries outsource to markets with cheaper labor. "We have a chance to excel in offshoring, Kamel said, "the average age in Europe is increasing and they need to [outsource]. Egypt is on top of their list.
