SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) Tuesday introduced its University Alliance Program to the region which looks to equip students with SAP software training, enhancing their skills and making them more marketable in the ever competitive IT market.
A global initiative, the University Alliance Program promotes scientific and technical education in tertiary institutions by providing students and lecturers with access to SAP software training.
Officially launching the program out of Singapore, Geraldine McBride, president and CEO of SAP APJ said the infocomm industry is facing a talent crunch today and it is imperative to groom talents to meet the growing manpower demands of the industry in a manner that will prepare them for the real world.
“Increasingly across the Asia region, we see the role of IT and the need for skilled IT people as being a lever of economic growth,” said McBride.
“As economies throughout the region continue to develop a more sophisticated level of economic integration will be necessary to sustain economic growth. Most of that new layer of sophistication will be enabled by IT skills.
“These are the sort of skills we hope to create, via the roll-out of SAP’s University Alliances programme...”
McBride estimates that SAP will need to help its partners find approximately 15,000 additional skilled people to maintain growth in the Asia region alone, by 2010.
The program will be taught through a series of demonstrations, simulations, case studies and research projects, held in a “hands-on”, practical setting allowing students to learn how to tackle issues that they might face one day in the workplace.
The program will start off by offering the “Integrated SAP ERP Business Scenarios based on SAP Best Practices” or BPERP training course.
The BPERP course, which was launched in Singapore some 12 months back, is a 10-day workshop that will train and certify students to use SAP ERP software based on SAP Best Practices.
Upon completion of the course and passing the BPERP certification exams, students will be awarded a SAP certification which is recognised globally by all SAP partners.
So far 250 students have graduated from it and with the alliance program, SAP expects to churn out at least 1,000 students by 2010 in Singapore.
Students of this course are normally charged SGD 6 900 each. As SAP is making its software and training systems available for free for at least 1,000 students to be trained by the institutes of higher learning by 2010, this is equivalent to a SGD7 million contribution to the industry by the organisation.
Speaking to SDA Asia, Crispian Tan, SAP’s regional director for the University Alliances Program APJ said that although only the BPERP course is being offered as of now, the software giant has plans to introduce other suitable SAP certification courses in the future.
When those courses become available, Mr.Tan said they will most probably be offered in key markets such as India, China and Japan where most of the interest is seen coming from.
Through the University Alliances Program, SAP hopes to reach over 300 universities in Asia Pacific by 2010.
The program has reportedly already drawn interest from over 100 universities in Australia & New Zealand, China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
SAP’s University Alliances Program is already established across 36 countries in the US and the UK, providing direct support to some 800 Universities. |
