Have you witnessed the recent NIIT ad on TV that shows IT recruiters kidnapping a GNIIT student-the underlying message being that in times of acute manpower shortage in the IT industry, it's GNIIT students who are the most sought after. Well, there might be arguments on the merits or demerits of a GNIIT student, but, more importantly, an ad on prime time TV indicates the positive and healthy vibes emanating from the Indian IT training industry.

Numbers too support this hypothesis: from FY 2001-02 till FY 2003-04, the training sector revenues consistently went down; subsequently, there was a turnaround last year when the industry recorded a 10% growth, and in FY 2005-06, this was further consolidated through a 14% growth as the training market size was pegged at Rs 1,453 crore. True, it might take ages for the industry to again touch the 2000-01 zenith of Rs 2,594 crore, but the last fiscal did prove to be healthy for the Indian IT training players, albeit in a market where dynamics have changed drastically from what they used to be five years back.

Chinese Led Exports Up
Nothing signified these changing dynamics better than the growth in exports revenue achieved by the training sector in FY 2005-06. At Rs 436 crore, it was a significant 56% jump over the previous year-if exports revenue in corporate training recorded an impressive 50% growth, the individual segment growth in exports shone even brighter with a whopping 84%. While the industry only gloats over exports successes for software services, it seems the Indian IT training sector too is flying high on foreign shores. Both NIIT and Aptech, the two leading players of the sector, achieved significant success abroad, and that too across diverse geographies. Interestingly, like the software services players, NIIT and Aptech both seem to have identified the Chinese dragon as the elevator to success in their sojourns abroad. In fact, for Aptech, its individual training revenue from China even exceeded that from India by more than Rs 10 crore; this makes China the new El Dorado for India's recovering IT training sector.

A look at the Top 5 IT training players in China for FY 2005-06 establishes the Indian hegemony: according to a CCID report, while Aptech with 18.8% market share led the pack, it was followed by the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) (with 9.6%), NIIT (7.9%), China Digital (3.8%) and East Software, Dongruan (3.4%). In China, Aptech had a 50:50 joint venture with a Chinese company Jade Bird, in which Beijing University had a stake too. It runs over 200 training centers spread across 57 Chinese cities. NIIT also consolidated its position in China by partnering with a provincial government to train 200,000 students over the next five years; it also established a Practice Base in Changsha Software Park. In 2005-06, NIIT had over 100 education centers dotting 25 provinces in China, forging partnership with local companies, over 20 leading universities and three software technology parks.

Though China has been at the forefront of their forays abroad, Indian players looked at other destinations too during the year. NIIT forged a strategic academic alliance with UK's largest university, the Open University, to offer its degree program-BSc (Honours) Computing and its Practice-to students in six countries across Africa, South East Asia and the sub-continent. In FY 2005-06, NIIT's education programs were available in Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, French and Arabic, apart from English. While China was the pillar of Aptech's overseas success in FY 2005-06, it also entered new countries like Vietnam, Nigeria, Turkey and Yemen during the year; new international centers were also planned in Mexico, Syria, Afghanistan and Lebanon. Even niche multimedia training players like Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) forayed abroad to places like London, Dubai, Mauritius and Singapore during the year. 

However, exports growth was not only confined to classroom-based training, but e-learning solutions through CBTs or Web-based courses also contributed a big chunk of it. NIIT addressed the complete spectrum of e-learning activities, like learning content, design and development, development and integration of learning technology tools, hosted solutions and learner support services. Its range of offerings in the e-learning domain was bolstered by its SEI CMM Level 5 assessed Knowledge Solutions Business (KSB), which during the year more than doubled its number of technology customers, adding names like Google, Computer Associates, BEA Systems and Symantec. This resulted in a 50% increase in business derived from the technology training domain.

Aptech too provided e-learning solutions for four large clients in the US and another 15 smaller ones, primarily through its delivery centers in Mumbai, Chennai and Pune. However, the leader in e-learning exports during the year was the Rs 98 crore Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) which developed learning solutions for a galaxy of clients like British Airways, GE, P&G, UPS, McGraw-Hill, Dept of Works & Personnel, the UK as well as Phoenix University amongst others. TIS was also providing consulting services on the e-learning front to organizations like North West Airlines and institutes like Corinthian University. Other players like Hurix and LionBridge gained substantially on the overseas e-learning front during the year.

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