| More About the Project |
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Why This Project:
Hidaya Foundations' head quarter being in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara/San Jose, California, USA) and most of its Board of Directors, Volunteers and Donor Base coming from the technological world, provided an opportunity for Hidaya Foundation to initiate a project where underprivileged & unemployed software engineering graduates can be trained and benefitted so they may find jobs successfully in their own discipline. It was observed that currently approximately 80% software engineers do not find jobs in their own discipline due to various reasons, the most prominent being the quality and lack of confidence on graduates part.
What Has been Accomplished: Hidaya initiated this project in January 2009 and trained over fifty (50) software engineers by end of the year. Approximately 20% of the software engineers were hired at Hidaya for training of future interns at Hidaya Institute of Science & Technology (HIST) and for the in house development work for improving Hidaya's internal processes. During 2010 it is expected minimum of over one hundred software engineers will be benefiting from this project.
Location of Current Training:
Currently, this internship is being offered at one of the facility of Hidaya Institute of Science & Technology (HIST) at Jamshoro, Pakistan, where Hidaya Trust, sister organization of Hidaya Foundation has one of its district operation in Pakistan. Jamshoro / Hyderabad is famous for offering a wide variety of educational opportunities to National and International students. Liaquat University of Medical Sciences (LUMS), University of Sindh, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Isra University of Medical and Science and Dr. Baqai Education City are on top from where thousands of students complete their education every year. Entrance Process: Hidaya advertizes Software Engineering Skills & Development project to community via various news papers and list servers and by posting at 6 to 8 local universities bulletin boards. Once all the resumes / CVs are received and evaluated, candidates are given a computerized written entry exam comprising their undergraduate coursework. All the candidates who clear the exam are interviewed. Final list of selected candidates is issued in December and June for the January to June and July to December semesters respectively. Financial Assistance: Financial assistance is given in the form of stipend for interns' day to day living (including residence, transportation, food and miscellaneous) and tuition assistance to cover the cost of Hidaya Institute of Science & Technology (HIST) tuition. Software engineers apply on an appropriate form for stipend and tuition assistance. Interviews are conducted and varying degree of financial assistance is provided based on candidates families economic background and place of residence of their families. Technologies Offered: This project includes theoretical and hands on development training of cutting edge Microsoft and Open Source technologies. In Microsoft technology, graduates learn Dot.Net module including core C#.Net, ASP.Net 3.5/4.0, Basic & Advenced ASP.Net, ASP. Net Security, IIS Configuration & Hosting, Web Services, MySQL Server 2005, Rich Internet Applications Development including AJAX, LINQ, Silver Light, XML. In Open Source technology interns learn PHP, MySQL, Linux, CMS (Joomla), CSS, Java Script, HTML and AJAX etc. Hands on Development Work While learning at Hidaya, interns get the opportunity to work directly on various Hidaya in house development projects such as internal paperless system, provide consultancy to external customers (profit and non-profit organizations), deliver training classes to underprivileged students at local schools and colleges to increase their interest in software engineering and information technology. Career Development Besides the software development, interns at Hidaya receive training classes for career development where they discuss socio-economical issues, world wide software engineering job markets, resume and cover letter writing skills, interviewing tips and techniques, English language competency, project management skills etc. Placement Services: Hidaya is also putting efforts to find the ways for these interns to be transitioned to industry and software development environments. Various software houses are being contacted for placement purposes. Future Plans: Hidaya aims to boost this project and expand it world wide to a much larger scale where hundreds of such graduates may benefit every year. Current HIST is considered as a laboratory for future growth Insha Allah. |