India’s IT giant, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) won the Corporate Responsibility of the Year Award at the Hr NETWORK Scotland National Awards 2018 recently.
The awards acknowledge and reward champions of the HR profession in Scotland. TCS received the prestigious accolade in recognition of its IT futures programme addressing Scotland’s STEM skills shortage.
The awards citation stated, “Tata Consultancy Services is committed to nurturing the IT talent of tomorrow with their nationwide community engagement and staff volunteering programme IT Futures."
Gopalan Rajagopalan, country head, TCS Scotland, said, “this recognition of our efforts is a huge honour and will hopefully put the spotlight on the digital skills gap in Scotland and the need to put in place large-scale programmes that equip and encourage young people to take up STEM education and careers. We are thrilled that the efforts of our staff and partners are making an impact.”
The IT Futures programme aims to nurture the IT talent of tomorrow and focuses on young people in schools, colleges and universities, as well as their influencers- teachers, parents, and peers. Working closely with charities and social enterprises, IT futures has already reached 300,000 students directly since its launch in 2013, with participation from over 1,600 TCS employee volunteers.
As part of this initiative, almost 1,000 students from Scottish schools, aged 12-18, recently took part in digital explorers- Experience Work, a first-of-its-kind event where they spent a day experiencing what it is like to work in the technology sector. This included a range of workshops and interactive sessions with engineers, industry professionals and TCS executives.
“Technology will play a major role in Scotland’s future economy and workforce. TCS is committed to equipping individuals and empowering communities to bridge the skills gap and ensure Scottish competitiveness in the future,” added Rajagopalan.