OREANDA-NEWS. Tata Consultancy Services (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation, announced that it is setting up the world's largest corporate learning and development centre with a total capacity to train 15,000 professionals at one time, and 50,000 professionals annually.

The proposed TCS learning campus in Thiruvananthapuram will be located on a 97-acre property in the Technopark area of the city. The campus will be built over an area of 6.1 million square feet and will feature residential accommodation for professionals and the faculty at the centre.

At a ceremony at the TCS's current training facility, TCS Peepul Park, the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, was the chief guest and laid the foundation stone for the project. Other dignitaries present included the governor of the state of Kerala, Nikhil Kumar; Chief Minister, Oomen Chandy; Minister for Industries and IT, PK Kunhalikutty; special advisor to the prime minister TKA Nair as well as the local MP, Shashi Tharoor.

N Chandrasekaran, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS, said, “TCS has been present in Thiruvananthapuram since 1997, and since then it has been the hub of our global learning and development efforts. The TCS learning campus will be the new benchmark for corporate learning worldwide, and this iconic facility will produce world-class professionals to meet the future needs of the IT industry.”

“We are grateful to the Kerala government officials and other stakeholders whose energy and commitment has helped make this project a reality today,” he added.

The project will boost local economy in the region and during the construction period alone, it is expected that the project will provide direct employment to over 2,000 skilled and unskilled local people for a period of four years. An integral part of the project will be the skill development programmes run by TCS to upgrade the skills of local youth and facilitate opportunities to work in the construction project, through contractors.

TCS is the single-largest private sector employer in India. It employs over 285,000 professionals worldwide and plans to hire 50,000 professionals in 2013-14. It spends over 15 million hours on learning and development programmes for its employees every year. Over the last five years till date, the company has trained over 143,000 IT professionals in India and abroad.

The company's learning programmes include its award-winning Initial Learning Programme for fresh graduate trainees as well as numerous competency development and leadership development programmes for middle and senior executives in the company.

The proposed TCS learning campus will provide a natural, contemporary vision for education by linking elegant design, ecological thinking and modern technology. The integrated design has been organised around a centralised, iconic training facility with collaboration rooms and libraries on the high plateau at the middle of the site with residential and support buildings around it. The master plan of the campus, inspired by the rich regional heritage, incorporates the local architecture influences and used local materials in construction. It incorporates several green concepts such as zero waste discharge with 100 percent recycling of sewage, energy-efficient systems, large area of green cover, rain water harvesting systems and integrated building management systems.