On track to training 15,000 highly skilled professionalsin deploying complex optical fibre networks, STL Academy addresses the industry’s skills shortage

STL Academy is an endeavour by Sterlite Technologies Ltd – STL [BSE: 532374, NSE: STRTECH], a global leader in end-to-end data network solutions, to create an ecosystem of highly skilled professionals in deploying and maintaining complex optical-fibre networks. It is now the first fibre programme in India to be endorsed by FTTH Council APAC.

In the last 10 months alone, STL Academy has trained and certified 1,500 people, and is all set to blaze a trail of 15,000 skilled, certified and employable professionals in the coming year. With over 40,000 hours of teaching, these programs were held all over the country, the most prominent one being the training of over 400 Army personnel in remote-border and sub-zero areas of Leh and Ladakh to maintain the Network for Spectrum fibre network in Jammu & Kashmir.

Today, telcos and citizen networks are building new and extensive networks for FTTx, 4/5G and other applications. At the same time, large enterprises such as the Defence are modernising their current mission-critical networks. These require innovative technology, such as bend insensitive solutions, which need specialised deployment skills. A lack of such skills is an industry recognised challenge, and is being addressed by STL Academy.

Kiran Solipuram, Chairperson of Training and Education at FTTH Council APAC, , said, “Our partnership with STL Academy will bring innovation and best practices to the Indian market. We will support STL to build an ecosystem of training and certified FTTH professionals that can cater to the growing demands of Indian telcos.I thank STL Academy for building competent skilled professionals for the Indian FTTH market.”

“Our deep experience of working with global operators powers us to understand the challenges of network deployment. The lack of a skilled work force is a challenge when it comes to creating smarter data network infrastructure and ensuring we can deliver on future broadband demands,” saidIndranil Ghoshal, Dean of STL Academy. “With the largest youth population in the world, India’s focus on human capital is immense. This initiative is not only impacting the lives of these people by generating skilled employment, but is also creating a connected India.”

“Shortage of skilled operators for broadband deployment has been a major challenge faced by the industry,” said Mohan HS, CEO of Infrastructure Equipment Sector Council (IESC),) one of the many leading institutions that has recently collaborated with the Academy. STL has already trained 700 students from IESC and another 3,000 are in the pipeline.“Over a million trained operators and maintenance personnel would be required to meet the projected growth in the coming years. We thank STL Academy for joining hands with IESC in training and certifying our workforce, preparing them to meet globally approved network deployment standards. Meeting this demand has a major bearing on operations and maintenance cost with increased productivity, safety and a defined career plan for these network professionals,” said Mohan.

About Sterlite Technologies Ltd – STL :

STL is a global leader in end-to-end data network solutions.

We design and deploy high-capacity converged fibre and wireless networks. With expertise ranging from optical fibre and cables, hyper-scale network design, and deployment and network software, we are the industry’s leading integrated solutions provider for global data networks. We partner with global telecom companies, cloud companies, citizen networks and large enterprises to design, build and manage such cloud-native software-defined networks.

STL has innovation at its core. With intense focus on end-to-end network solutions development, we conduct fundamental research in next-generation network applications at our Centres of Excellence. STL has strong global presence with next-gen optical preform, fibre and cable manufacturing facilities in India, Italy, China and Brazil and two software-development centres.