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The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 778 points, the BSE-Sensex crashed by 2,000 points; all in a single days tradingthe financial meltdown of FY 09 which is still continuing in FY 10 has started looking even worse than the Great Depression of the 30s. To add to the grim scenario, Indian IT companies have joined their global counterparts in laying off employees. In such an environment of foreboding and apprehension, the last thing you would expect is for the IT training market to grow.

But surprise of all surprises, the Indian IT education market (private sector only consisting of IT training and e-learning exports) has grown by 13% to reach Rs 3,827 crore in FY 09, up from Rs 3,393 crore in the previous fiscal. Even though the figures may not seem impressive at the first look, the truth of the matter is that in the recessionary phasewhen most companies are downsizing and training is, therefore, last on the priority lista double-digit growth calls for celebration.

CyberMedia Research  DQ Estimates

Most companies were downsizing, and training was the last thing on their priority list. That the IT training market still grew, was largely due to the initiatives in the public education sector and a rival in individual training market

Corporate: Not Alls Lost
The corporate training market also grew 11%, the reason could be that demand for on-site deployment of certified training resources far outweighs the number of layoffs. Unlike the US, even those who were handed pink slips were getting re-employed sooner than latter. Notwithstanding the slowdown, Nasscom predicts that by 2010, the Indian software industry alone would require 2.3 mn professionals, and based on the current supply there is likely to be a shortfall of half a million. Perhaps thats why most Indian IT companies still invested in certification and training, albeit on a selective basis.

Much of this corporate training is in the form of e-learningthe two often get intertwined in many cases. NIIT, the undisputed leader in IT education, grew by 61% in the last fiscal with a special focus on e-learning. This was because most companies were wary of spending on on-site training, owing to increasing costs on trainer and facility arrangement. In the last fiscal, NIIT clocked Rs 578 crore in corporate training, inking major deals with the Indian Army and also the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. In fact, unlike previous years when it was largely enterprise-driven, the fillip to corporate IT training came in FY 09 from the governments increasing emphasis on employability training.

Aptech too bagged training orders from a non-banking financial institution, the BPO division of a large software company, and an insurance firm. It further renewed contracts with three large BFSI clients apart from a UN agency and a leading BPO company.

CyberMedia Research DQ Estimates

Individual training seems to have got a second lease of lifecourses on infrastructure management, animation and major technologies from the likes of Cisco, EMC, Microsoft, Red Hat as well as training programs under various ministries were the elixir. Aggressive branding of programs like GNIIT also helped. Corporate training was largely driven by e-learning

Acquisitions too helped: NIIT acquired controlling stake in Evolv Services (a leading provider of English language and communication training); Aptech acquired English language training business of Bengaluru based First English Education Institutes Limited (FEEIL), taking over the operations of four centers (located at Koramangala, Banshankari, Mathikere, and Rajajinagar).

Individual: Still Relevant
Cynics continued running down the individual training segment, citing global meltdown as the cause of declining employment opportunities in the IT sector, therefore leading to IT training losing relevance. The sector, however, held its own and grew by 15%. It was once again NIIT (almost synonymous with individual training) that not just contributed the lions share (Rs 431 crore) but also helped sustain the market.

During FY 09, NIIT saw over 4,38,000 enrollments, a growth of 13% over the previous year. It added around fifty education centers, taking the total number of NIIT education centers to around 11,000 by March 2009. This growth can be attributed to a slew of job-ready career courses and its flagship program, GNIIT. The aggressive brand campaigns for GNIIT on the electronic media seem to have paid off. Incidentally, GNIIT alone contributed a student registration intake of 20,000.

In addition, NIIT also tied up with Microsoft earlier this year for making available Microsoft certified professionals. As part of the program, GNIIT students appear for relevant Microsoft certification examinations. In the first phase itself, over 9,000 students were trained using Microsofts learning content, while in the first batch, 170 Microsoft Certified GNIITians were made available for industry absorption. The company also partnered with leading organizations like Wipro, HCL, and IBM for placement assistance.

With the business environment getting tougher by mid-year, NIIT responded to the changing market dynamics by launching intensive technology programs to make graduates job-ready in ninety-nine days. Incidentally, the initiative was also acknowledged by the recent Neilsen-Week Survey as being amongst the best short-duration job ready courses in the country.

Infrastructure management appeared to be the next growth frontier for most training majors. With the Nasscom-McKinsey report forecasting that India is strongly positioned to capture up to $15 bn of the global remote infrastructure management market over the next four years, the demand for experienced workforce with highly specialized skill-sets was bound to go up.

Not to miss the bus, training companies like NIIT and Jetking started offering infrastructure management courses. NIIT brought together global technology giants Cisco, CompTIA, EMC, Microsoft, and Sun to co-design GNIIT (IMS) program. In addition, short duration, specialization programs, as well as a BSc (ITIM) from Kuvempu University were also part of the program.

NIITs IMS course is currently being offered in 129 centers out of which over forty centers offered it on Cisco technologies. In FY 09, NIIT trained over 3,000 students in Cisco and over 5,000 students in storage technology using EMC. IMS students later got placements in companies like Aricent, Wipro, HCL, IBM, and NetEnrich.

Besides the flagship three-year GNIIT (IMS) program for aspiring college students, NIIT is also looking to tap working professionals and engineering students in the IMS space by offering nine to thirteen month certification mapped programs on technologies like networking, storage management, server management, desktop, and application management.

Jetking also forayed into IMS space by launching Masters in networking administration.

As per Nasscom estimates, out of 5 lakh plus engineering passouts a year, only 25% are considered employable owing to the outdated curriculum. With this is mind, Aptech took the lead with its Aptech for Engineers, a slew of specialized IT courses for engineering students. Under the program, students were given specialization options in popular application development frameworks like Sun Java and .NET.

Aptech also introduced another program for engineersAptech Certified Technology Specialistalong with Prometric to enable certification exams. Aptech would also be forging alliances with engineering colleges to offer Java courses and certification exam facility on the campus itself.

These apart, Aptech opened thirty-five new education centers and bagged a large order for training students from Nigeria, under the aegis of the India Window Program conducted for foreign nationals in India. It also got an enthusiastic response for the ITEC/SCAAP courses (sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India), which cater to students from 156 countries across the globe. Training facilities were also commenced in Malaysia under an agreement signed with MDEC Malaysia and SNT Malaysia.

Its flagship brandACCPwas adjudged the Best ICT Training Program in the Best ICT Choice of Mongolia-2007 competition.

Meanwhile, its hardware and networking arm, N-Power opened twenty new centers across India in smaller towns like Ghazipur, Haridwar, Moradabad, Rewari, Noida, Bolangir, Bilaspur, Dadar, Vashi, Jamnagar, Kanpur, and Bhubaneshwar. N-Power also launched N-Power Certified Enterprise Systems Engineer (NCESE) program in collaboration with vendors like CompTIA and Red Hat. N-Power became the first institute in India to offer BSc in hardware and networking in collaboration with Karnataka State Open University.

Arena Animation tied up with MS University, Tirunelveli to offer a BSc Degree in Multimedia and Animation, at selected Arena Animation centers, following the SILM (Students Integrated Learning Model) for training with online examinations. In the first quarter of 2009, new Arena centers were inaugurated at tier-2 cities like Surat, Nagpur, Udupi, Ghaziabad, Allahabad, Saharanpur, Durgapur, Kasganj, Kanpur, and Tirur.

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