Asia’s largest IT training institute, NIIT has announced a pioneering initiative to address the industry’s growing need for certified professionals in the field of Infrastructure Management Services (IMS).

Its GNIIT (IMS) program will provide students with an application-based learning experience along with global certifications from IMS industry leaders like Cisco, CompTIA, EMC, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.

Mr. Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT Ltd. said “Infrastructure Management Services has opened up exciting career opportunities for the youth around the world and India, in particular, is poised to take a lead in Remote Infrastructure Delivery.”

The Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) business is slated to grow at a CAGR of 80%. India is favorably positioned to capture US$ 15 billion of this US$ 28 billion global opportunity. This will fuel the demand for a highly skilled workforce.

“IDC research estimates a demand for 3 million networking professionals by 2010. There will be a shortage of up to 2 million professionals,” said Milind Gurjar, Director Global Market Development, Learning@CISCO. “There is a tremendous shortage of IT professionals in the United States,” affirmed Todd Thibodeaux, President and CEO, CompTIA.

This may sound like an anomaly given the global economic situation where recession and layoffs have been rampant in the IT industry. However, in the words of Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd., the situation reflects “Not an employment problem but an employability problem.” Put in simple words, there is no shortage of jobs in the IT sector; there is a shortage of skilled, experienced professionals.

And it is this shortage that GNIIT (IMS) program seeks to address. The program will be spread over four semesters in two years, after which students will undergo one year of professional practice. Students will further be offered credit points equivalent with Kuvempu University’s B.Sc (ITIM) program thus allowing them to pursue the GNIIT (IMS) program coupled with a Bachelor’s degree in ITIM (IT Infrastructure Management).

The program is available at NIIT centers all over the country as of June 2009.