Software Development Training is being offered at one of the three facilities of Hidaya Institute of Science & Technology (HIST) in Pakistan, which is located in Jamshoro, Pakistan. Twin cities  of Jamshoro -Hyderabad are 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.

Applications for Training:
Hidaya advertises Software Development Training application deadline dates and training start dates via various news papers, list servers and by posting at 6 to 8 local universities bulletin boards.    Graduates apply for the training on-line at www.histpk.com.  Applications are evaluated and 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 nearly a week before classes start.

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 & Advanced 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 social-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.

What Has been Accomplished:
Hidaya initiated this project in January 2009.  During initial two years approximately 150 software engineers completed the training at Hidaya Institute of Science & Technology (HIST) and over 200 interns dropped out due to finding jobs or pursing other interests.