Infy to use internships to attract more global talent

Infosys Technologies, India's second largest software exporter, plans to use the success of its global internship programme, InStep to attract more global talent to the company. From the launch of the programme in 1999, the company has so far trained 664 people from 41 nationalities.

"The programme, launched almost 10 years ago to create a platform for the brightest engineers from the US to understand India and our (Infosys ) business better, has now metamorphosed to cover most other countries globally. Our belief is that sooner or latter InStep will become a good conduit to recruit more and more global talents," N R Narayana Murthy , chairman and chief mentor of the Nasdaq-listed company told in Chennai on Monday.

In 2008, about 175 trainees from 27 countries joined the internship programme. This year, as of now, over 100 students have joined the programme. The company says, while at least 15-20 people from every internship batch were joining the company earlier, this number is expected to go up as it is planning to recruit more overseas talent going forward.

According to the company, once they return to their respective countries, the interns work as brand ambassadors for Infosys which helps the company promote itself as a global recruitment brand.

"Today if you go to 85 universities worldwide considered the best in those countries, you will see us present there and you will see our ex-interns. It has done wonders to us in terms of building a global brand amongst the global academia," said Sanjay Purohit, vice president and head of corporate planning.

The duration of Infosys' global internship programme targeted at young engineers and MBAs is in the range of 8-24 weeks. During the internships, the trainees are being provided monthly stipends