The Indian training market seems to be on a song, quite literally. Showing a growth rate of 31%, the training market was worth Rs 2,804 crore in FY 07, up from Rs 2,135 crore in the previous fiscal. And, once again, it was the performance of the two major playersNIIT and Aptechthat played a prominent role in this growth. Incidentally, the performance of the training market has surpassed even the heydays of FY 01 when the market had touched Rs 2,594 crore.

Dim-sums and the Dark Continent
With Indian software services players struggling in rough waters, hit by dollar-rupee fluctuation and the slowdown in the US market, exports revenue definitely took a beating. However, the picture in the training sector was not so bleak. Sample thisthe export training market was worth Rs 1,499 crore in FY 08, up from Rs 1,270 crore a year before. Both the major players continued to expand operations overseas. And expansion happened mainly in Asia and Africa thereby insulating the sector from the US downturn.

The story of FY 08 is the journey to the Dark Continent of Africa. Even though NIIT ventured in to Africa about a decade ago, by setting up its first IT education center in Botswana in 1997, the company is now teaching around 20,000 students every year through its thirty-six learning centers in eight African countries, namely, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Libya, Sudan, Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

The total IT education market grew by 29% up from Rs 2,626 crore in FY 07

With a renewed focus to expand operations in Africa, NIIT launched its training campus in Botswana that can accommodate 7,000 students, for training in various IT streams by 2010. The Government of Botswana has also awarded accreditation of Tertiary Education Council (TEC) to NIITs training programs. The company joined hands with CII to help develop ICT capacity in the African continent. Its Hole in the Wall project has already been implemented in sub-Saharan countries like Rwanda, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique.

Aptech too has been operational in the African continent for the last 6-7 years now including operations in countries like Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Not just the NIITs and Aptechs, smaller players like Karrox Technologies also plan to tap into Africa and China by 2010-11. Karrox already has Kenya, Ghana, and Tanzania on its roadmap and has announced its third IT empowerment scholarship in Nigeria.

Even as the Dark Continent beckoned these training companies, the dim sums did not lose their flavor. Between the two, Aptech and NIIT held close to 40% of the Chinese IT training market, with Aptechs JV, Aptech Beida leading.

NIIT, however, expanded aggressively last year. Celebrating completion of a decade in China. NIIT ramped up its China operations, as the total number of centers in China stood at 171 across twenty-five provinces this fiscal. The student enrollment too recorded a 35% increase y-o-y. The highlight of the year was the MoU with the Wuxi government to set up an IT training center in the city. In order to introduce IT training programs in universities and colleges, NIIT the partnered with ChongQing Information Industry Bureau.

Aptech, whose JV has led the market for more than half a decade, trained over 1,70,000 students during the fiscal. It is restructuring its China operations. This years results of its China operations are awaited, the reason that led to Aptech being ranked only on its standalone India revenue in DQTop20 Vol-I.

Meanwhile, under the aegis of the Ministry of External Affairs, NIIT established centers in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Cuba. The CoE in Havana, Cuba has been set-up with the objective to offer Indian expertize for fostering skilled ICT manpower. Under this initiative, the company is presently training nearly 800 students in Cuba.

The rollout of the companys tie up with UK Open University to offer the Universitys BSc (Hons) in Computing and its practice at the NIIT centers in six countries continued as per plans, and admissions have commenced in all selected countries, ie, Botswana, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.

With most outsourcing companies increasingly looking to set up base in Vietnam due to low cost of labor and an English speaking population, it is logical that the Indian training players too en-cash the opportunity. Starting with two centers under the Aptech Computer Education (ACE) brand in 1999, Aptech has scaled up its Vietnam operations to thirty-three centers. Whats more, it is planning to open seven centers this fiscal. NIIT too has been scaling up presence in the country.

NIIT, meanwhile, extended its offerings in Malaysia, where it partnered with the Ministry of Human Resources for implementing the NIIT Inside model in industrial training institutes. And, as part of the program, the company embedded its programs in Arumugam Pillai Industrial Training Institute in the pilot phase.

Aptech wound up its Bangladesh subsidiary operations and is now controlling the Bangladesh operations through its Indian office.

Individual Training Goes Proletariat
Even though dollar depreciation resulted in slowing down the hiring plans of most IT biggies like Infosys, Satyam, and HCL Technologies, the individual training market clocked Rs 1,178 crore in FY 08.

This year too the story was no different with a major percentage of the individual training revenues coming from NIIT. On an overall basis, enrollments registered a 25% growth to cross 389,000, with an increase in seat capacity by 15% y-o-y. The Individual Learning business contributed Rs 32 crore, clocking a growth of 31%.

In sync with its transition to becoming a global talent development corporation, NIIT launched several new training programs in partnership with key IT companies: Adobe for offering Web, mobile and interactive multimedia; Cisco for networking and infrastructure management; EMC for storage management; Microsoft for embedding Microsoft certification in the GNIIT curriculum; and Sun Microsystems for embedding Sun certification in the GNIIT curriculum.

Sensing that the next level of growth will come from semi-urban India, NIIT launched its District Learning Centers (DLC) in association with corporates like Cisco, TCS, Wipro, IBM, Intel, and Infosys, etc. The industry funded intensive training program in IT and soft skills was delivered to over 200 students in Chhindwara. Moving ahead, the company has also set up another DLC at Barkuhi. Hardware training major Jetking too plans to expand operations in tier-2 and -3 cities this fiscal.

Aptechs flagship product, ACCP, enrolled 1,30,000 students during the fiscal. Meanwhile, the Mumbai-based company also launched certification programs for engineers, MCAs, and MSC, who are looking for vendor certified courses and entry in the software industry.

Smaller players like New Horizon too have their eyes set on the retail training segment. With retail training market beginning to mature, people are not satisfied with vanilla offerings and are on the lookout for more advanced diploma courses. To cater to those willing to look beyond the traditional IT training courses, New Horizon is planning to launch several unique courses including software engineering, networking, Web development and database management.

Notwithstanding the rupee-dollar fluctuation resulting in slowing down of hiring plans of most IT majors, the individual training market managed to clock Rs 1,178 crore in FY 08, up from Rs 768 in the previous fiscal

With the growing Indian economy and increased PC penetration in all sectors, there is increasing demand for hardware and networking professionals across the country. Perhaps this could explain the entry of the two dominant players NIIT and Aptech into the hardware and networking segment last year.

Aptech announced its arrival in the market with the launch of its N Power brand that includes both short- and long-term hardware and networking certification courses. The company opened N Power center in Vietnam as well. Aptech already has thirty centers across the country and plans to open fifty more next year.

NIIT expanded its portfolio with the launch of GlobalNet+, a specialized training program for those looking to build their career in networking and infrastructure management. The program has an option of pursuing globally mapped certification programs such as A+, Network+, MCDST, CCNA, etc, and to specialize further in diverse fields of networking and information security. Other courses launched include Web Design and Multimedia (for training in Web 2.0, Flash, Dreamweaver, Cold Fusion, and Flex) and Operating System (training in Solaris 10, Windows Vista).

As one of the oldest players in this segment, Jetking Infotrain added twenty-five new centers across India in tier-2 and -3 cities including Bharatpur, Indore, Vijaywada, and Vishakhapatnam taking the total to 115 centers.

Unperturbed by the new competition, Jetking plans to add forty more centers this fiscal with a special focus on the southern part of the country, by opening a center each in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and five in Andhra Pradesh. Looking to grab a larger share of the hardware training market, Jetking is planning to diversify for training the vernacular population.

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