•  The partnership aims to reach out to over 2,000 Everonn powered colleges and an estimated 20,000 students
•  QAI training and certification offerings will significantly ready the workforce for emerging skills and careers

Chennai, June 8, 2010: QAI, the global workforce development leader, today announced its partnership with Everonn Education Limited, the world's largest VSAT education network company. The partnership endeavors to augment the employability quotient of students graduating from various academic institutions. Presently only 25 per cent of the 4 lakh engineering graduates passing out of Indian universities every year, fit the needs of the IT industry and are employment ready (source: NASSCOM report). As part of this engagement, Everonn and QAI will together offer QAI's globally recognized certifications, trainings and mentoring to students through digitally enabled lecture platforms, campus adoption programs of Everonn and industry academia exchanges.

Given the upbeat mood in IT, BPO and the services sector and the revived focus on hiring fresh talent, this strategic alliance is indeed well timed. As per recent reports, most of the IT majors are once again back to recruiting significant numbers of candidates from engineering campuses and it is anticipated that in excess of 100,000 software engineers will be hired by the industry this year.

Announcing the new tie-up, Mr. P. Kishore, Managing Director, Everonn Education Limited said: "India is a global software hub and needs qualified and trained IT professionals with the right skills set. In this context, we are pleased to partner with QAI in their endeavor to build an ecosystem of trained and certified software professionals. Everonn's vast network of over 2000 colleges and institutes shall help QAI reach out to students and professionals and bridge the existing skill gap."

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Navyug Mohnot, Chief Executive Officer, QAI said, "The Indian IT and BPO industries have two urgent needs: to continue to source and on-board people and to develop business critical skills in the already existing large workforce that they already have on board. QAI, in association with Everonn, will address both these needs. According to a recent study, NASSCOM projects 15 per cent growth in the software industry and a shortage of 5 lakh skilled workers by the end of 2010. Our endeavor is to help bridge this skill gap and supplement the workforce of skilled software professionals for the benefit of the industry."

QAI Global Institute brings to this association its vast experience, knowledge capital and globally acclaimed certification programs in the software, BPO and customer service domains. Everonn, through its vast presence amidst the learner community, particularly in the institutions of Higher Education, combined with its experience in developing apt methodologies of education delivery will ensure that these programs in partnership with QAI will reach to over 20,000 students in the span of the next one year.

Thus, this partnership aims to successfully build a pool of skilled professionals, who will help bridge the manpower deficit in the short run. To this effect, both the partners would work closely with academia to develop more employable talent.

The partnership will initially provide students access to any of the five programs (listed below) which will be imparted through approximately 40 hours of instructor led, technology enabled training, followed by globally acclaimed certifications from the QAI Global Institute. To ensure greater adoption and make the certifications readily available to interested students, the program costs have been considerably reduced. It is fairly well understood that students who undergo the requisite training programs are not only able to further enhance their careers, but also secure better salaries.

These certificate programs that are being jointly offered by QAI and Everonn will be made available by Everonn at its centers through digitally enabled lecture platforms and have been carefully selected, bearing in mind their potential and need. Software Testing and Business Analysis for instance, have seen increased traction of late creating over 40,000 and over 20,000 jobs respectively in 2010 (Source: Naukri and LinkedIn), as software companies reinvent themselves to be seen as not just providers of technology solutions, but organizations that comprehend the client's domain and have a deeper grasp of their business imperatives. The need is therefore for professionals who effectively combine business and software knowledge and can engage with clients competently and credibly. Likewise, with over 70 per cent of outsourced Software Testing now coming to India, this area has seen resurgence and there is a projected demand for 22,000 Testing Engineers in 2010 (Source: Gartner Report). In response to these growing needs, the programs currently on offer from QAI and Everonn include:

•  Certificate program in Software Testing
•  Certificate program in Software Quality
•  Certificate program in Business Analysis
•  Certificate program in IT Services Management
•  Certificate BPO Customer Service Professional

In the present industry scenario, software companies face the uphill task of constantly training their professionals, to ensure operational excellence and to meet stringent client requirements. The partnership between QAI and Everonn will foster the development of skilled professionals, better equipped to enhance organizational productivity within reduced timeframes. As per a recent IDC study, over 75 per cent of the managers from the software sector believe that certification plays an extremely important role in performance improvement.

The lack of dedicated companies in the training and certification space leaves a big gap which QAI aims to fulfill as an expert consulting, training and certification enterprise.

About Everonn Education Limited

Everonn Education has its presence in the Indian education industry for over two decades and is listed on both the BSE and NSE. It is India's first education and training company to offer satellite-enabled learning, Everonn is a pioneer in facilitating education using breakthrough technologies. Everonn is the largest VSAT education network in the World. Everonn today reaches out to over 3 million students through 8492 learning centres across 27 states and works with 16 State Governments of India. (31st March 2010).

Everonn has the expertise to design 'wired and wireless knowledge and training delivery platforms' to meet the educational needs and the technological capabilities to stream relevant content simultaneously and seamlessly through VSAT, Broadband and the 3G Spectrum (Mobile). For any further information, please visit www.everonn.com.

For further information, please contact:
Pooja Bhalla,
QAI: 9811155798
Amit Gupta, Text 100: 9871576705