Infosys has announced a brand-new initiative in partnership with Table Tennis Victoria to cultivate young leaders within the sporting community. The Junior Leadership program will provide promising young leaders with an immersive educational experience, boosting their digital knowledge and community consciousness. These potential leaders will be selected from a pool of over 700 competitive and recreational under-18 players from across metropolitan and regional Victoria.

The beneficiaries will utilise a customised version of Infosys' cutting-edge digital learning and collaboration platform, Infosys Springboard. The platform will enable them to enhance essential talents in domains such as inclusion, leadership, technology, and design thinking. Additionally, they will have a unique opportunity to spend a day at the Infosys Living Lab in Melbourne. There, they will dive into hands-on learning sessions centred on the Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality and their transformative impact on sports, communities, and the global landscape.

Besides the technological aspects, the Junior Leadership program encourages engagement in community leadership and volunteer work. As part of the process, the young participants will deliver a table tennis project in collaboration with their club, coach, or community organisation.

The initiative is expected to spur growth at both individual and organisational levels. Table Tennis Victoria anticipates that the program will bolster volunteer recruitment, increase female and junior participation, enhance tournament structures, and clarify performance pathways. The program will also serve as a primary stepping stone in forming a junior advisory committee — a move aligned with the child-safe standard of empowering youth. Timetable-wise, the first group of junior leaders are set to partake in the program in April 2024.

Ashok Mysore, Vice President of Infosys and Regional Head of delivery and Operations in Australia and New Zealand expressed his excitement about the collaboration, stating, "Through a bespoke version of our digital learning and collaboration platform, Infosys Springboard and our Living Lab in Melbourne, budding leaders in Victoria will have access to important digital and leadership skills."

Endorsing the venture, Andrew Weiss, Chief Executive Officer (interim), Table Tennis Victoria, asserted, "Creating a Junior Leadership Program allows the youth of our sport to take on more responsibilities and have more of an influence on how we operate, bringing a fresh new perspective on how we do things."

Molina Asthana, Board Member of Table Tennis Victoria, added, "We are delighted to collaborate with Infosys and look forward to seeing the next generation of leaders from our Table Tennis community advance their skills using the Infosys Springboard digital learning platform."

This innovative partnership between Infosys and Table Tennis Victoria highlights the integral role that technology and digital literacy play in formative sports training, fostering the next generation of leaders, both in and beyond the sports arena.