With the IT sector growing after a recession at the turn of the century, and the world increasingly moving towards becoming a global village, IT expertise has been hard to come by.

The worldwide jostle for skills has led to multinationals sending recruitment scouts on expeditions to find the most talented staff, training them and redeploying them to where the demand is greatest. This has made South African universities a rich harvesting ground for proficient IT professionals for large multinational corporations that are able to scoop the cream of the crop. One such company is Satyam, an Indian-based multinational IT company. As a large-scale consulting, outsourcing and system integration services organisation, Satyam needs an ample supply of IT skills. The organisation, which was founded in 1987 by Ramalinga Raju, already employs in excess of 49 000 people, explains Jena Chittaranjan, country manager for Satyam South Africa. It's the fourth largest IT firm in India, operates in 20 industries and in 61 countries.