Multi-skilled Individuals today are expected to display the following skills :

1. Full Stack Skill Set
   1. Strong foundational understanding in Design, User Interfaces and User Experience.
   2. Front End Knowledge that’s focused on customer experience and service
   3. Back End Knowledge that supports the micro-services model
   4. Polyglot Persistence (ability to use multiple languages as needed for best productivity and highest impact)
   5. The ability to quickly and effectively pack, deploy and release
   6. Can create functional working programs
   7. Can code comfortably and confidently
   8. Can troubleshoot and address errors
   9. Can estimate timelines needed for deliverables
2. Problem-Solving Skills
   1. Can analyze and subsequently compare and contrast iterations in a workflow
   2. High awareness, so knows what can and can’t be solved
3. High Productivity
   1. Can build better, faster
4. Consumer-Driven Perspective
   1. Can design basic UI
   2. Focuses on responsive, multi-platform solutions
5. Software Engineering
   1. Agile
      1. Can iterate and solve effectively to deliver high quality Minimum Viable Products (MVP) and Proof of Concepts (PoC).
      2. Can manage short high-speed bursts for more productive outputs in shorter timeframes
      3. Can work effectively in high-pressure environments
   2. Test Automation Skills
   3. Package & Deploy
      1. Can effectively leverage DevOps to deliver high-quality outputs at high velocity
6. Product Engineering
   1. Can work with abstract requirements
   2. Can effectively manage product backlogs
7. Technology
   1. Resourceful – Uses the right tools and technology
   2. Quick learner, innovative – can pick up and use new technologies
   3. Driven by Modern Architecture

StackRoute is a NIIT product engineering venture that provides disruptive, outcome-driven, practitioner-led, and extremely tough learning solutions. StackRoute is a digital transformation partner for enterprises that help your teams pick up digital engagements across your organizational pyramid by inter-connecting essential pain points and addressing them: from how they were doing earlier, to what is needed now by asking the question: “Will it work?”

It aims to deliver deployable project-ready assets, not resumes. No powerpoint slides, no spoon-feeding, no classrooms, no sessions. Students learn by doing, by solving problem thrown at them, after which their performance is reviewed, feedback is provided, and the work is redone until solutions are reached. It is this iterative process of self-learning, self-discovery, iterative adaptation that creates greater impact and longer retention of applicable skills. This empowers participants to take control of their own learning through rigorous, intensive programs that are experiential, immersive and iterative in nature.

Our New Hire Training (NHT) deep-skilling program creates project-ready software engineers and encompasses the following key points:

1. Practitioner-designed, trainer-run program that provides the bare-minimum skills for survival of entry-level project-ready engineers
2. 12 to 14 weeks
3. 60-70% Hands-on
4. All trainees write code that is reviewed, refactored and then redone
5. Non-trivial practical assignments
6. Conducted in project-like environment that’s closest to real life scenarios
7. Deployed as confident, day-1 project-ready assets on training completion
8. Companies spend their a big chunk of their annual training budgets in this segment. This offering provides a streamlined simultaneous replacement (about 3 months) for existing induction training, bench-time and shadow periods (previously 9 months)
9. Helps save 6 months and about 1 to 1.5 lakh rupees per new hire
10. Transformation at the bottom of the pyramid
11. 70% success-rate for project-readiness.

Training sStructure today is as follows :

1. Concepts are introduced
2. Small practice exercises are given
3. Rigid adherence to specific concepts and protocols
4. Lack of consistent monitoring
5. Recursive (repetitive) learning
6. Does not welcome mistakes and failures
7. Learning happens at the cost of the project time and effort
8. Concepts are introduced

Currently, no training programs have environments close to real work.

StackRoute addresses the following training requirements that are needed to make new and existing hires project-ready:

1. More hands-on (about 60-70%)
2. Solid non-trivial assignments
3. As close to real projects as possible
4. More complex tasks
5. Learning registered and reinforced through consistent practice
6. An environment treats failure and mistakes as opportunities for improvement and learning
7. Constant monitoring and review processes in place for iterative learning (redo & refactor mechanisms)
8. Practitioner orientation, at least from the design perspective (if not execution)

This helps us design deep-skilling programs that guarantee Project-Readiness by handling:

1. Emerging disruptions
2. New technologies
3. Abstract requirements
4. Persistent complexities
5. Changing customer needs
6. Unpredictable market demands
7. Shorter notice periods & response times for reaction & delivery
8. Lack of time
9. Lack of budgets and resources

For the last 10-15 years, a fresh engineer is picked up by organisations like Wipro, Cognizant etc. and put into a 3-month induction program. This is typically done by trainers (internal or outsourced). Here every training gets great feedback, engagement, involvement, even results, as it would seem. But because there’s no struggle, because trainers aren’t pushing them, there is short-term joy and long-term loss due to a false sense of accomplishment, which then creates an illusion of knowledge of programming.

This is then written off as a done and dusted activity by L&D departments as a checkmark against their training budgets. However, most people don’t get deployed. Instead they’re benched for 2-3 months. When they are finally deployed they then go through a shadow period, at which time they learn at the cost of the project, without touching the main code. This is where the actual learning happens. About 50% of these will become billable at the end of the shadow period. This entire process happens over 6-9 months and was ok until now because they were large teams and they could afford to do so.

The combination of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery.

Continuous Integration refers to the setup of a single location where all the code is integrated as the foundation for more advanced changes and practices, and the preparing & keeping it ready for release.

Continuous Deployment takes the packed code (package), deploys it into production and makes it available for users from a release perspective.

To automate this pipeline requires skills in DevOps, and this concept is further extended with the knowledge of Containerization, which is an alternative to full machine virtualization that involves containing/sandboxing an app in a container with its own operating environment.