Press Release

Colombo, February 15, 2008: NIIT, leading Global Talent Development Corporation and Asia’s largest trainer has announced that it will offer B.Sc. (Hons) Computing and its Practice top up degree program of the prestigious Open University of UK, to its DNIIT (Hons) students in Sri Lanka. Students who have successfully completed two and a half years of DNIIT (Hons), can now opt for the University’s degree program and will get credit waivers of up to 240 points of UK study, for the program.

NIIT has an academic alliance with the world’s leading distance teaching university, The Open University  (OU) of UK, to offer its degree program to students of its 2-year and a half year IT career program—DNIIT (Hons)—in six countries namely Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Botswana, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria and Vietnam.

Students completing their DNIIT (Hons) this year, can opt for the degree program, and will be required to study full time at their NIIT centre to complete 120 credits of OU courses, upon which they will be awarded degree from the University. Students will have the convenience of gaining a degree from the prestigious UK University, while studying at their NIIT centre in Sri Lanka. Students will be taught by expert NIIT Faculty who have received special training on OU curriculum.

NIIT students pursuing the University’s degree program will be registered, examined and certified by the Open University. The first batch of The Open University, UK started on 9th February’08 at NIIT centre, Union Place, Colombo.

MMBL CyberSkills Pvt. Ltd., NIIT’s business partner in Sri Lanka organized a special launch function for B. Sc (Hons) in Computing and its Practice Degree Inauguration Program 2008 here today.

The event was attended by senior executives from NIIT’s Corporate Office in India, MMBL group, Capitol Maharajah Group, ICTA and Software Industry. At this event, attended by a large number of students, senior academicians and industry representatives highlighted the need for relevantly skilled IT professionals and how NIIT has played a key role in creating global professionals for the IT industry.

NIIT offers short and long term IT training programs on latest and emerging technologies, across its 10 education centres in Sri Lanka. The talent development company has strategic alliances with global technology majors such as Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, EMC, Adobe etc to offer training on their technologies.

Founded in 1969, The Open University is the world’s leading distance teaching university. The OU is rated as the 5th best in the UK in teaching quality after Cambridge, Loughborough, York and the London School of Economics. More than 160,000 students across UK and over 40,000 from outside of UK are studying at the Open University.

Over 70 percent of the undergraduate students are in employment and many are sponsored by their employers. The Open University is recognized for its ‘supported open learning’. The University has 13 regional centres across the UK.

 

NIIT, Asia’s No. 1 trainer and leading Global Talent Development Corporation, offers learning and knowledge solutions to 5 million students across 32 countries.

Leading Indian IT magazine Dataquest has conferred upon NIIT, the Top IT Training Company Award 2007. Rated among India’s Superbrands (2003-05), NIIT’s Individual Learning Business offerings include: Industry-endorsed programs for students seeking careers in IT: GNIIT, Integrated ANIIT for Engineers (IAE) and Advanced Technology Programs for IT professionals.

NIIT’s Corporate Learning Solutions, offers integrated learning solutions (including strategic consulting, learning design, content development, delivery, technology, assessment and learning management) to Fortune 500 companies, Universities, Technology companies, Training corporations and Publishing houses.

Element K delivers learning solutions for customers and partners through a tailored combination of catalog learning products, technology, and services. The offerings include: vLab®: hands-on labs, instructor-led courseware, comprehensive e-reference libraries, technical journals, and KnowledgeHub™: hosted learning management platform.