‘Training is a Big Market’

In the first year of its operations in India, New Horizons India plans to set up training centers in metros across the country. CNS met up with New Horizons president and chief executive officer Ajay Kumar Sharma to discuss the company’s plans for the future. Excerpts:

The education sector in India has seen immense growth. What would be your

formula for success?



New Horizons Computer Learning Centers was named the world’s largest IT

training company by IDC in 2002 and we want to maintain a similar momentum here

in India. Through our integrated learning offering, we want to provide

customer-focused computer training choices with a wide variety of tools and

resources that reinforce the learning experience. To meet the changing pace of

the IT industry, we have a huge sales force backed by an R&D facility. We

already have a small R&D unit in India, which we will be expanding in the

near future. Our key differentiator is that we offer quality learning.

What

kind of markets you are planning to tap in India?



In the initial stage of our India operations, we were addressing only the

enterprise and the corporate market, bringing to the fore our core competence in

corporate training which has enabled us to be the world leader in corporate

training. Worldwide 80% of our revenues are contributed by corporate training.

We would now like to tap the retail market to make inroads into the Indian

training market.

What kind of investment is needed to set up a center?



We plan to launch over 250 centers across the country in three years’ time

at an investment of up to Rs 200 crore. The model adopted for setting up these

centers involves the creation of company-owned facilities in key metros and

franchisee-owned facilities in satellite cities. The franchisee model would

require an initial investment of Rs 30 lakh, which has to be doubled in three

years of operations.

What has been the trend in IT education over the last two years?



For the last 20 years, the education segment in the IT industry has been

growing at a greater pace than, say, the manufacturing or services segments. In

the last two years, however, there were over capacities being built overnight.

Now the trend is to work toward a smooth rate of growth that will generate

realistic resources as per the demand and supply equation.

What programs you have announced for the Indian retail market?



We have announced five retail programs in India. First is the high-end

technical training program for OEMs like Cisco, Oracle, Linux and Sun. Second is

the program for institutes like YWCA Delhi, which will have an embedded training

facility. A third retail program has been launched for students from third world

countries. It is being carried out in association with the Ministry of External

Affairs. We have also announced DOEACC ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level courses for

students who would like to pursue a career in the government sector. The last

course will entail a comprehensive curriculum for technical professional

training in areas like DBA, networking and programming.

Shweta Khanna



(Cyber News Service) in New Delhi