India's largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS) today said it will set up the world's largest corporate learning and development centre in Thiruvananthapuram with a total capacity to train 50,000 professionals every year. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the facility.

The learning facility will be built over area of 6.1 million square feet and will have the capacity to train 15,000 professionals at one time and 50,000 professionals annually, TCS said in a statement. Located on a 97-acre property in the Technopark area of the city, the campus will also have residential accommodation for professionals and faculty at the centre, it added.

TCS has been present in Thiruvananthapuram since 1997 and since then it has been the hub of our global learning and development efforts," TCS Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director N Chandrasekaran said. The TCS Learning Campus will be the new benchmark for corporate learning worldwide and this iconic facility will produce world class professionals to meet the future needs of the IT industry, he added.

The project will provide direct employment to over 2,000 skilled and unskilled local people for a period of 4 years. An integral part of the project will be the skill development programmes run by TCS to upgrade the skills of local youth and facilitate opportunities to work in the construction project, through contractors.

TCS employs over 2,85,000 professionals worldwide and plans to hire 50,000 professionals in 2013-14. It spends over 15 million hours on learning and development programmes for its employees every year. Over the last 5 years till date, the company has trained over 1.43 lakh IT professionals in India and abroad.