Press Release

2015

StackRoute – an NIIT initiative to create ‘Full-Stack Programmers’ garners huge response from the industry

Startups as well as established IT Services companies line-up for the exclusive program leading to over-subscription of the 1^st batch

• Technology companies including Wipro, Redmart, Trellisys, Rorko, NIIT Technologies, EntLogics & Posist show keen interest in StackRoute^TM
• NIIT to give out special scholarships to meritorious students

New Delhi, October 1st, 2015: StackRoute^TM, an NIIT initiative to produce the world's best full stack programmers, has received overwhelming response from startups and IT companies alike, leading to over-subscription of the 1^st batch that commences in October 2015 in Bangalore. A number of technology companies including Wipro, Redmart, Trellisys, Rorko, NIIT Technologies, EntLogics and Posist have already indicated that they would like to hire StackRoute^TM trained programmers in their organizations.

NIIT announced StackRoute^TM, first of its kind initiative to create full stack programmers, in August this year. Owing to high demand from both industry and individuals, admission to the first batch of the program has already been fully subscribed. NIIT will announce more batches for interested organizations and individuals shortly. Further select meritorious students are also being awarded special scholarships.

StackRoute^TM is a pioneering initiative from NIIT that aims to create multi-skilled, and multi-disciplinary programmers who can become key members of high-performance teams in top notch product engineering companies, startups, and IT firms. These 'Full- Stack Programmers' will also be well equipped to create their own technology start-ups

StackRoute^TM is a truly high end, specialised program offering, that takes a group of talented programmers screened through a rigorous selection process and turns them into high performance full stack programmers that the industry needs urgently. The product has been developed in intense consultation with the industry, start-ups, product engineering companies and incubators, and is strongly endorsed by all the key industry stakeholders. The pilot program commences in Koramangala, Bangalore which has already become India's most concentrated startup hub.

Speaking on the significant milestone for NIIT, Mr. Rahul Patwardhan, CEO, NIIT Ltd. said, "The response that StackRoute^TM has received from established IT companies and startups, has reiterated our belief that there is a growing demand in the industry today for versatile professionals who can wear many hats and work on multiple technology platforms. I am confident that this program will create multi-talented programmers who can cater to the changing needs of today's global organization."

"StackRoute^TM will also open avenues for youth to work in responsible positions closely with the decision makers. The program has been designed to make ambitious youth technologically empowered to set up their own enterprises, or play crucial roles in established IT companies or in the startup environment," added Mr. Patwardhan.

The successful launch of this initiative is a strong first step by NIIT for the Renewal phase of the three stage Business transformation exercise for its Skills and Careers Business. This began with the 'Restructuring phase' in October 2014, and was quickly followed by the 'Re-energising phase' that commenced in April 2015. Keeping up the momentum in parallel, NIIT initiated the 'Renewal phase' from July 2015 which will evolve over next 3 years.  The huge interest generated for the first batch itself reaffirms NIIT's ability to innovate and respond to the changing needs of the industry and career seekers.

"With StackRoute, the Renewal Phase of our Skills & Careers Business is well underway. The Full-Stack Developer program marks an important milestone in this journey. It combines our focus on pushing pedagogical boundaries with our Immersive Learning approach with the Industry's need to accelerate adoption of new Cloud & Mobile technologies. We are excited that we have translated our vision into a concrete customer offering earlier than planned", said Udai Singh, Chief Strategy Officer, NIIT Ltd.

Currently, the StackRoute^TM program focuses on the MEAN Stack (MongoDB, Express, AngularJS and Node.js), which is an open-source software stack for building scalable web sites and web apps.  This will be followed by a series of further specialised full stack programs focused on Data Sciences & Analytics; IT Security and Cloud Infrastructure management, etc. NIIT is also working on expansion plans so that in the near future these full-stack programmers are available to key product engineering and startup hubs in major metro cities in India.

The kind of software engineers needed by the startup sector and IT companies today, are significantly different from what large IT services firms needed in the past for their huge software factories. Engineers need to be versatile and have full stack programming skills and NIIT has taken a step forward to provide the same.

Naveen Lakkur, Director, Founder Institute, Bangalore said, "India has witnessed startup boom in the last couple of years and this has led to changing roles of professionals in the workplace. Startups need young and dynamic professionals who are quick to learn and apply their knowledge. As most startups in India work on technology platforms we are currently faced with dire need of programmers who can work on multiple technology platforms and move quickly to newer technologies. StackRoute is a steroid for the Startup world and I congratulate NIIT for this unique initiative."

About The StackRoute Program

The StackRoute program is based on an extremely hands-on, experiential learning model. Over a 12-week intensive boot camp, the students are immersed in a work environment that is exactly like that of a product company. They are mentored by a team of senior architects and tech leads drawn from the industry. By the end of the program, students produce real products over this time frame, which are then released as Open Source contributions or as part of App Stores and become primary demonstrators of our their competencies. Innovative pedagogical methodologies and the use of intensive learning analytics are other unique features of this first-of-its-kind intensive program in India.

StackRoute^TM, enables people to become top-quality programmers by providing intensive boot camps based on 5 key principles:

1. Learning is an Immersive Experience: the environment in StackRoute^TM is that of a product engineering company with rigorous engineering discipline and Agile development. Students are steeped in this environment in intensive boot camps. When they graduate, engineering discipline is second nature for them.
2. Less Theory, More Practice: The pedagogic model reserves over 70% of time within any course to designing, writing, reviewing code.  Class-room style instruction occupies less than 20% of the course.
3. Learn from Industry Experts: StackRoute^TM courses are designed by industry experts. It has a unique model of practitioners working with small groups of students.
4. Build and Release a Real Product: Every graduate of StackRoute^TM builds at least one real product, some of these are Open Source contributions, others are sponsored by the industry. The primary demonstrator of competency is showcasing the product.
5. Completeness and Practical Engineering: At StackRoute^TM focus is on quality engineering, DevOps and testing – without these capabilities, students cannot be top quality programmers. The curriculum lays equal emphasis on developing critical thinking skills, making people experience real-world reviews and developing their problem solving skills.

The courses are designed and led by industry gurus who have built and taken live ultra-large scale systems. The focus would be on product engineering where students can build and release products in an environment that has the best engineering practices. Each program will be run by a CTO and a set of product leads who will work with student teams to provide the product vision and strategy, architecture and design inputs, the tips and tricks that result in efficiency.

Please visit www.stackroute.in for more information and follow us on: https://twitter.com/Stack_Route