Pilot set up in Hamilton providing employment pathways and securing further Indian Technology trade links for Aotearoa HAMILTON, New Zealand, Nov. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A consortium of industry and government partners working together to increase Aotearoa's supply of home-grown technology talent has celebrated the first 15 trainees reaching a three-month foundation skills milestone in Hamilton. HCLTech, a global technology company, chose Hamilton, Aotearoa, for the first Rise at HCLTech pilot programme in the ANZ region. The programme aims to provide people with a pathway to local employment through foundation skilling and work-integrated learning over 12 months. The Rise at HCLTech pilot has been jointly funded and facilitated by HCLTech and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), with guidance, support and goodwill from the broader education and business community, including the Ministry of Education and Waikato Tainui. All stakeholders are committed to developing relevant and collective solutions to Aotearoa's technology workforce shortfall and ensuring that people can participate in the digital economy. HCLTech and MSD jointly selected the fifteen participants reaching their first programme milestone today. The participants have spent the last three months completing foundation skilling, equipping them with the skills to progress to an internship that provides work-integrated learning and tech stream-specific skills development. The programme participants will begin their work-integrated internship shortly and will be deployed with a HCLTech client in Hamilton. Rise at HCLTech is offered in the US, Canada, Australia, Europe and India besides New Zealand. In the last few years, the program has been offered to over 8000 candidates globally". HCLTech's Country Head for Australia and New Zealand, Michael Horton, said the pilot programme demonstrated the New Zealand Government's willingness to work with industry and technology stakeholders to create solutions. "HCLTech trains thousands of people in contemporary and emerging tech and facilitates non-technical development. Our programmes enable someone with no IT skills to be job ready within a year. We thank our Hamilton partners, particularly the Ministry of Social Development, for their support and guidance and working collaboratively with us to grow a local workforce. The goodwill we have received from all stakeholders and the innovation-first ethos has made this investment possible." The landmark investment between HCLTech and the Ministry of Social Development complements the New Zealand Government'sIndia-NZ 2025 - Investing in the Relationshipstrategy paper, which outlines building closer ties with India through the technology sector as a priority. HCLTech has operated in New Zealand since 1999, with offices including a client delivery centre in Hamilton that started operations in 2019. The delivery centre joins corporate offices in Auckland and Wellington.