A year ago, the heated breaths spoke of ERP, datawarehousing and Microsoft certification to take you into the yonder worlds of fame and fortune. But in just twelve months since then, it’s a volte-face. ERP is still around but it’s lukewarm. Oracle, SAP and Baan certifications were the midas touchstones—now they aren’t the only ones. Microsoft certification is important, but with over 100,000 such like titles beating the bush, it doesn’t get you there—right away. But you still need it. So what has taken over the training world and fired the imagination of the corporate users, vendors and students alike. 

There seems to be pretty close congruence that the hottest courses today are on Java. And the reason is quite obvious—Java is becoming the unifying technology for any ecom or ebiz application in the midst of HTML, DHTML, XML, ActiveX, VBScript and so on. While a number of training vendors offered Java courses a year back, today options and numbers abound. Java courses are offered by technology vendors, Oracle and IBM. They are also offered by training vendors like karROX Technologies, Lateral Software, SRA Systems, Concourse Information Technology, TransEd, GI Solutions, Radiant Software, TechnoCampus, CMC, Edutech Informatics, Tata Infotech and at least two dozen other training principals.

All these players want a pie of the new gold mine. Admits Vivek Padubidri, Country Manager, Sun Educational Services, "Last year the number of Java certifications from India was negligible on the global scene. But this year, we have the highest number of Java certifications, globally." He refuses to release the actual number of Sun-certified Java professionals. While numbers are booming, Padubidri has other issues—the large number of unauthorized centers teaching Java courseware being one. While the list of Sun authorized Java partners includes players like Bitech, Metamor School of Excellence, Intelligroup, STG and Boston Computer Institute, it does not include majors like NIIT, Aptech, CMC, Tata Infotech and Oracle. Padubidri elaborates, "We are very selective about our partners. Adequate infrastructure for training and certified instructors are very important. Otherwise, the consumer is the loser. And we don’t want to create a thousand professionals overnight."

Next on the sizzler list are the ecom and ebiz courses. And again the number of offerings is large, including career courses from Aptech, karROX, Concourse, Inset, First Computers and Bitech-Bharathidasan University. And short-term courses for professionals from NIIT, IBM, Asset, STG, ElNet-3L, karROX, SQL Systems, Tata Infotech, Edutech Informatics and a multitude of other players. But the catch is unlike technology courses—ecom courses are not platform specific. And as Anil Philip, Deputy General Manager, Learning Services, IBM India describes it, "Though ecom training today is primarily on the NT platform, ecom itself is not platform specific. We therefore cannot give an IBM certification at the end of our ecom course—we can only give a certificate." Food for thought—for those looking to add to their bunch of medals. So what drives the need for ecom courses?

Both Aptech and NIIT, leading training majors, have the same approach towards developing skill sets in the ecom area, and are offering courses for the career aspirants and the industry professionals. Aptech offers both long-term and short-term courses called eACCP and AECP respectively. For industry professionals, Aptech offers several courses through its Asset division, including the ecom@asset series. The courseware for the ecom@asset series of courses has been jointly developed by Asset International, and, Learning Services, IBM India. Adds Ravi Khanna, Senior Vice President, Aptech, North Zone, "The need for ecom courses came from our regular market surveys. And the driver is the sharp increase in web portals." NIIT offers its four-year iGNIIT course, and a shorter, two-year diploma course in web centric computing. As Suren Singh Rasaili, Vice President, International Education, NIIT describes it, "There are two ways to build skills in any new area. The first is through the technology approach, which is weak in the country. The other is through the application developer community, which is what we have chosen."

Other than ecom and Java, a number of emerging technologies and application areas are also regarded as hot by training majors. Looking at the top skill sets required in the country today, Rasaili of NIIT includes, in the hot list, courses on enterprise systems management, Linux, and security and encryption. With regard to enterprise systems management, NIIT offers certification around Unicenter TNG from Computer Associates, while for Linux its courseware is built around the Red Hat Linux. Points out Rasaili, "We see Linux taking off and it will be difficult to scuttle it now." Khanna of Aptech adds to the list of top skill sets of today, web related design and databases around Oracle 8I and SQL Server. And according to Philip of IBM, "Ecom and security are the hottest skill sets today."

While ecom, web and database technologies appear to be adequately covered in most of the training course offerings across the country, courseware for web security and encryption still appear to be in the early stages, probably reflective of the early technology cycle itself. An appropriate summary of the changing needs of the training market is voiced by Philip when he says, "The demands of the international market drive the Indian training industry." Probably tomorrow will be as different from today as today is from yesterday.