NIIT plans on mixed bag of courses

NIIT, the leader in the training sector, witnessed the most spectacular slump in 2001 with revenues dipping by nearly 91 percent. In contrast, 2002 looks to be a much better year with cash registers starting to jingle again in the stiles. Although the earlier growth rate may not be achieved, a growth rate of around 50 percent is expected. And NIIT too is about to follow in Aptech’s footsteps by demerging its education and training business from its software services arm.

But what are the courses that could help NIIT achieve this turnaround? GNIIT would continue to be the favourite even in 2002. Of course, the core of NIIT’s flagship program would remain state-of-the-art technical skills, strengthened with core concepts and software engineering. The key technologies covered would be C++, Java, Java Scripting, .Net architecture along with VB.Net and ASP.Net, J2EE Framework and XML. While all these will be covered in the instructor-led mode, technologies such as C# and Oracle, which are covered through e-learning, can be treated as part of the latest, unique hybrid methodology of delivery.

Apart from its core GNIIT program, NIIT is also banking heavily on the SWIFT Jyoti program launched on December 2, 2001 its 20th anniversary. Priced at Rs 500, this program was successful in training one lakh people across India on computers on the first day itself. Throughout 2002, Swift Jyoti will seek to familiarise people with the new IT tools of the 21st century such as e-mail, office automation software (MS Office) and other popular programs. The program would be upgraded throughout the year at NIIT’s R&D centre, based on the principles of Andragogy (the science of helping adults learn), and would incorporate several characteristics that would enable adults to learn effectively. These would include a self-taught, self-paced approach with minimal intrusion by the instructor.

NIIT would also continue its thrust on corporate training as well as its nationwide network of CATS (Curriculum for Advanced Technology Studies) centres exposing IT professionals to the most advanced technologies, helping them upgrade their skills and stay ahead of competition. The different cutting-edge skills NIIT would concentrate on during the coming year would include database implementation using RDBMS, front-end applications programming, object-oriented applications development, visual programming, Internet usage and programming, Microsoft technologies, IBM technologies, server-based computing systems and Oracle technologies.

According to NIIT’s chairman Rajendra Pawar, the company would also concentrate in 2002 on enrolling more engineering students as it feels that the two streams are getting complementary. And the students would get a strong theoretical input in the college as well as current technology inputs in NIIT, giving them a dual qualification. While the college degree would give the basic education and the social content, NIIT would be offering special skills for a profession. Says Pawar, “The future is about complementing and supplementing the formal system to meet the market needs both quantitatively and qualitatively.”

Lastly, NIIT is set to deliver on its promise of taking IT training to the masses. Having already launched its computer appreciation course in Bengali, NIIT plans to launch in 2002 similar courses in Tamil, Gujarati and Hindi. The course material would be vernacular but the technology terms would remain English.

Karrox stays on course with networking and security

Karrox has traditionally banked on its networking and Linux courses and 2002 is unlikely to prove any exception. One USP that separates Karrox from even the training giants is its Cisco Certification programme one among a few in India to offer this facility. This unique focus enabled Karrox to generate revenue of Rs 20 crore even in a dull year like 2001 and now gives it the confidence to predict at least a 20 percent growth this year too. According to Jeetendra Nair, vice president, Karrox, the Cisco focus coupled with its initiatives in new technologies like security and call centre training would add to its topline.

Apart from its network of 108 centres in India, Karrox too is taking the international route to success. International operations divisions would be very active and there is an internal mandate to ensure the presence of Karrox in at least 20 new countries. 2002 would see operations starting in New Zealand, Singapore, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, apart from finalising its entry into four other countries by the end of April. Besides, it also plans to set up at least another 60 centres in India during FY 2002-03.

From a strategic angle, Karrox has decided to focus mainly on security and networking courses in 2002. This would entail deleting some of the software course offerings.

From an expansion point of view, it would not be looking at new regions within India unlike the international policy, but would look to expand in regions where it is already present. This would help in getting more revenues and will not increase costs. Support systems would be tightened and quality would be the theme of the year.

What are the courses Karrox intends to add in 2002? Answers Nair, “The way the market is positioned we expect the demand for networking courses to increase exponentially. Hence we would try and consolidate our position as leaders in networking technologies.” He, however, adds that Karrox has plans to go up the value chain and offer the latest technologies on all operating systems viz. Windows 2000, Solaris, and Linux in addition to offering the latest courses on Cisco technologies.

Banking heavily on security, Karrox has formulated a comprehensive security course in the country. Substantial investments have been made to roll out the course in the first week of April. This course would be a natural progression for all experienced system administrators and networking engineers and would include modules in security infrastructure, firewalls, vulnerability management and intrusion detection systems.

Nair explains the rationale behind the thrust on networking courses. Unlike in the software segment, the advantage of networking products is that they continue to co-exist in the marketplace while competing with each other. Besides, this is one segment that has not been overhyped during the last few years and yet has quietly established its importance and indispensability.

Aptech plans major multimedia thrust

After a sluggish 2001, Aptech looks poised to consolidate its hold on the education and training market, now that the demerger of its software division from its software arm, Hexaware, is complete. For this reason, Aptech is about to either introduce or upgrade a host of its courses throughout 2002. These would include Engineering Design and Advertising courses in Arena Multimedia, upgrading the e-ACCP 2002 to the New ACCP, which will be a world program with the latest technologies.

Besides this, in order to address the burgeoning IT-enabled services industry, Aptech Computer Education (ACE) has launched the Calltech training program this year under the umbrella of its Resource IT Enabled product group for training students for the call centre industry. In addition, Asset International would be focusing on networking courses.

Apart from these new additions, what are the existing courses that Aptech is hedging its bets on? According to Pramod Khera, CEO, Aptech, these include Proffit, an outright job-oriented course, designed specifically for current market requirements. It prepares students to face up to the challenges of the corporate world, both on the technical and the organisational front. The three-year career program called Triple Certificate in Multimedia, Web Engineering and Media Convergence, and the ‘Total .Net Project’ course designed to give real-time development experience to the students, are the other likely favourites. Courses on games designing and high-end animation at Arena Animation Academies, professional courses on 2D & 3D animation and entrepreneurial courses like video editing are also likely to have their niche appeal.

Aptech also plans to consolidate its position in foreign lands, having already established 235 centres in 52 countries. It plans a presence in 60 countries by the end of 2002 with Latin America and Asia-Pacific remaining its main thrust areas. Khera believes that Arena is all set to emerge as the power brand in 2002 with a targeted expansion plan into 40 countries. Fifty additional Arena Animation Academies are being planned for 2002 domestically.

Another lucrative market Aptech is keenly eyeing in 2002 is the corporate training one. Aptech plans to capture 8-10 percent of a market that could grow to a size of nearly Rs 250 crore by end of this year. The most promising driver of growth in this segment is e-governance, where Aptech expects a lot by way of corporate training investment.

Aptech has also taken the initiative of identifying exceptional talent in the industry with the formation of the Premium Batch concept. The coming financial year will see this concept moving to the smaller cities and towns in addition to the metros. In these non-metros, Aptech also plans to impart its courses in Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali.

The Year 2002 should also see greater interest in courses that stress on improving fundamentals of students and giving them a thorough grounding in IT skills. Hence, career courses should evince a lot of interest. As far as technologies are concerned, there would be demand for training on networking, frameworks, Unix and C and multimedia.

Red Hat caters to increased demand for Linux professionals

Red Hat, the Linux distribution leader, has seen its training business gradually increase to now contribute 30 percent of Red Hat’s revenues in India. This training revenue is expected to grow by 80 percent in 2002, then accounting for 40 percent of the company’s total revenues.

This translates into a plan for adding 50 odd centres and increasing the number of Linux certified professionals by over three-fold.

But what are the courses that Red Hat plans to add in the coming year? Reveals Shankar Iyer, training manager, Red Hat India, “We would be enhancing the basic Red Hat Certification courses with the release of newer versions like 7.2, besides looking at other new domains.” These virgin areas would include embedded systems and kernel programming, security, desktop productivity orientation and Apache server configuration.

According to Iyer, the demand for Linux trained professionals would come from both, IT companies who are already working on Linux platforms, as well as non-IT companies making the transition from Windows or Unix to Linux. Almost 120 corporates are currently undergoing Red Hat training with around another 100 likely to come up in 2002.

As far as courses are concerned, the security module is likely to be in high demand and would be launched in India in April 2002. The desktop productivity orientation course, a 2-day program meant for the beginner-level desktop community, has considerable growth potential this year. Red Hat would also break the myth of Linux training in India being only restricted to administrators by launching the kernel programming course. But the most likely of the newer courses to climb up the popularity chart looks to be the Apache server configuration module where skills like database sharing, clustering and networking would be imparted. However, Iyer insists that the main focus would continue to be on the Red Hat certification courses.

Red Hat currently imparts its training through its partners like STG (100 centres all over the country), Linux Learning Centre (LLC) in Bangalore, Spider Systems in Pune and the Indian Institute of Rural Automation (IIRA) in Jalandhar. In 2002, Red Hat would be focusing on higher-end training and implementation and as part of the plans would tie up with another 50-odd partners by April 2002.