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 The
year 2001 has turned out to be a major turning point for Indian
IT training majors in a period marked by downswings like the slowdown,
9/11 and an abysmal domestic market, they have managed to charter
a new course by successfully implementing aggressive overseas expansion
plans. The international operations divisions of these companies
have in fact never been busier liaisoning with consulates, starting
joint ventures, tying up with prestigious foreign universities and
at the end of the year have umpteen achievements to boast of.
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Bala
Subramanian
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With
a global strategy firmly in place, Aptech with more than 235 centres
in 52 countries and NIIT with a sizeable presence in 27 nations,
interestingly remain the major rivals in the overseas market too.
Set-up just about three years back, Aptech’s international
division achieved 120% growth in the year 2001. The multipronged
strategy adopted for world-wide expansion has a very clear focus
for the retail and corporate training divisions. With 76 centres
operating in China, more than 20 in Africa, and 40% market leadership
in neighbouring Bangladesh, the training major is all set to head
the market position in many countries. Apart from its regular cache
of regular short-term courses, it is the customised variant of eACCP
which remains the most sought after course by students. The course
content is translated into Chinese, Spanish, Russian, German and
Korean. With the purpose of providing students with triple certification,
alliances have been made with reputed universities like the Southern
Cross University of Australia, Excelsior College in the US and SMU
(Sikkim Manipal University).
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| Pradeep
Narayanan |
The
company’s JV with the Beida Jadebird IT Company Limited, which
is 60% owned by the Beijing University, has led to a major success
story in China. “Today we are a very renowned name in China
in IT education and get a lot of recognition from the government,
the industry and the masses,” says a proud Lata Venkatraman,
Aptech’s territory manager, China, pointing out that whenever
a new centre is opened in the country, it turns out to be a media
event. The Sungkonghoe University (Korea)-Aptech partnership led
to the initiation of the unique India Window Programme (IWP). Under
this programme a typical 3-year-course is completed in a year with
the latter part conducted in India. Since Koreans are interested
in learning English, the programme also incorporates training in
the language in a special tie-up with the British Council, informs
Gloria Shroff, corporate manager, international operations. All
students get a three-month internship with Indian IT companies.
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| Jeetendra
Nair |
It
is a little known fact that the company has many centres even in
Pakistan (where it is registered as a US firm). In African countries
like Tanzania and Uganda where there is little awareness about IT
education, it has launched a large-scale low-level computer literacy
agenda called Aptech Aware Programme. Similarly, in Latin America,
where a career in IT is not a popular option, regular events are
organised in this high probability market (because of the large
percentage of youth). “A significant different market, modular
courses are popular here and the course content is in Spanish,”
says Uday Nirgudkar, Aptech’s associate vice president &
territory manager, Latin America.
With
an objective of being a truly global company, its aim is market
leadership in each country. “By 2002 we will be leaders in
10 countries and by 2003, about 20 to 25 nations. Globalisation
entails a lot of localisation. The role of our local partner is
to understand the market, we provide the content, technology and
deliver,” says V Bala Subramanian, senior vice president &
Head - international division of Aptech.
 Arch
rival NIIT also aims to be the world’s largest IT education
and training company. It is the first and the only Asian organisation
to feature among IDC’s list of top 15 IT training companies
in the world. The Futurz and CATS series are the most popular courses
overseas and are customised according to local demands, informs
Pradeep Narayanan, Head of Education, NIIT. “For example in
China the courses are also offered in Mandarian, in Malaysia in
Bahasa. NIIT’s focus on instructional design, delivery and
education process management results in successful delivery across
diverse audiences,” he adds. According to Narayanan the biggest
markets for Indian training institutes are the Asian countries like
Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines.
“In
the future we would be continuously improving our training offerings
based on the feedback of the end customers the employers as well
as the technological needs of the industry. We would continue to
maintain and improve the exceptional standards built over the last
20 years, bring more value into our product offerings, introduce
many more new technologies and increase presence in unrepresented
pockets with potential in order to give a cutting edge to our students,”
says Narayanan.
STG
is another company which has a wide network in the US, Australia,
the Middle East, Russia, and several South East Asian countries.
It is the only ISO 9001 training organisation in the field of IT
education in Russia. The ZAO iTech Centre for Business Technology
in Moscow opened its doors to students in September this year.
“The
Russian market has a lot of potential as there are not many companies
which are promoting parallel education in the field of IT education,”
says Puneet Shrivastava, CEO, iTech. The market, he says, is divided
into three major categories students, individuals and corporates.
Most of the Russian companies which are in the market are targeting
corporates because that is where the money is. The students market
is very cost conscious. “Many multinational companies are sending
their employees to us for training but the response from Russian
organisations have been very slow initially.” Located in the
Moscow Aviation Institute, where 14,000 students are studying, they
have got all the courses are certified by the MAI. This has also
helped in bagging more clients.
“We
have already signed an agreement in Kazakhstan for opening a new
centre in Almaty and are also discussing with few more companies
in Moscow and in St. Petersburg to start more centres there,”
says Shrivastava. He reminds that recently the Russian government
has announced an ambitious programme called e-Russia, under which
it will spend 2.8 billion dollars over a period of 10 years to make
the country fully electronic. “This means more jobs in the
field of IT and people with existing IT skills would need to upgrade
their skill sets and learn the business application of their skills.”
Yet another lucrative opportunity for Indian IT training companies.
Even
relatively newer players like Karrox have started looking overseas
to cash in on the wave. The company which did not have any global
plans even about a year ago, set up its International Operations
Divisions just four months back and established its first centre
in Auckland, New Zealand, shortly after. About 18 to 20 countries
have been identified and operations finalised in Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka and Singapore, while advanced level of discussions are on
in UK and Malaysia. The strategy adopted is also clear. “Initially
we want to focus on the APAC region. The first phase is to finalise
the countries in this region and then consolidate. After this the
second phase will be over by March 2003 targeting more countries,”
says Jeetendra Nair, vice president - international operations,
Karrox. After completion of the initial phases, the European and
American markets will be tapped. “We are targeting the APAC
region first because of the comfort of operations and have major
plans for China,” he says, adding with obvious pride that Indian
training companies will be as welcome even in the developed nations
as the acceptance of Indian IT is very high. The governments of
all countries and trade commissions have also been very supportive.
The experience of Indian trainers has lead them to believe that
the grasping power of students abroad is slower than average Indian
students, and consequently there is extension in duration of courses.
Interestingly,
while Indian IT majors are busy expanding their market overseas,
for a non-Indian company like the Singapore headquartered Informatics,
India remains the largest market base. The company which has centres
in 32 countries has 244 centres in India. “By March 2002 we
would be closing with 350 centres in the country,” informs
Kinnari Joseph, centre manager. The USP of their company according
to Kinnari is that 80% of the students come through word of mouth.
“Our core value is community service, we keep conducting mass
literacy drives and underprivileged students are enrolled for courses
paying as little as Rs 900 for a three-month course.” Apparently,
whether trainers or students, India remains the flavour of the IT
training world.
(With
inputs from Punita Jasrotia in New Delhi)
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