Tom Blumer
NewsBusters
8/9/2010
On August 3 (“U.S. To Train 3,000 Offshore IT Workers”), InformationWeek.com’s Paul McDougall reported that the U.S. Agency for International Development is operating at cross purposes with the Obama administration’s stated goal to keep high-tech jobs in the U.S.
USAID has since attempted to do some backing and filling about the assistance it is providing in Sri Lanka, but its arguments may ring hollow, given McDougall’s report two days later that the agency is also helping to fund IT outsourcing efforts in Armenia.
Here are the first four paragraphs of McDougall’s original August 3 report:
Despite President Obama’s pledge to retain more hi-tech jobs in the U.S., a federal agency run by a hand-picked Obama appointee has launched a $36 million program to train workers, including 3,000 specialists in IT and related functions, in South Asia.
Following their training, the tech workers will be placed with outsourcing vendors in the region that provide offshore IT and business services to American companies looking to take advantage of the Asian subcontinent’s low labor costs.
Under director Rajiv Shah, the United States Agency for International Development will partner with private outsourcers in Sri Lanka to teach workers there advanced IT skills like Enterprise Java (Java EE) programming, as well as skills in business process outsourcing and call center support. USAID will also help the trainees brush up on their English language proficiency.
USAID is contributing about $10 million to the effort, while its private partners are investing roughly $26 million.
Read the rest of the article at NewsBusters.org
