Infosys sets up UK graduate scheme

India’s Infosys Technology is planning to expand a graduate hiring programme to the UK under which the company has already recruited more than 100 US graduates for training at its facilities in India before eventual deployment back in their home markets.

The move, which follows criticism in the west that Indian outsourcing companies are stealing jobs in developed countries, will kick off next year with a pilot programme for 25 students picked from 12 universities across Britain, including Cambridge, University College of London and Nottingham University.

“This is to supplement our operations as we scale up aggressively in these markets,” said BG Srinivas, senior vice-president and head of Europe for Infosys Technology.

Indian outsourcing companies have increasingly been stepping up their staffing in developed markets to provide face-to-face services to their customers and to overcome language barriers.

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest IT outsourcing company, has large operations in countries ranging from China to the US and Australia while Wipro Technologies, the country’s third largest software company, is opening a business processing outsourcing centres in Romania.

Infosys says about 30 per cent of its 58,000 staff are employed outside of India but only about 3 per cent of the company’s workforce are non-Indians, from 45 countries.

Infosys started its US graduate training programme two years ago, sending 136 people to its special training facility in Mysore, near Bangalore, southern India’s IT capital. It is looking to increase its US intake to 200 this year.

The students undergo up to three months of classes at Mysore, which has bowling alleys, multiplexes and other modern facilities, before receiving on-the-job training in different units of the company for three months.

The UK graduates chosen by Infosys will start training in July or August next year.