Training To Grow; Growing To Train

vspace="2" align="right" width="397" height="227">Two

strong trends emerged in the training segment over the past year. One of them was the

Internet and the other the growing emphasis on re-training. Of course the bottomline is

the training industry continued to register a healthy growth rate.

One word. Growth. Continuous. Consistent and constant.

Never mind the recession. Never mind the low offtake of PCs. Never mind the uncertainty.

Never mind anything. The training industry is on a platform that is absolutely unaffected

by any of the ailments affecting the rest of the domestic industry, or even the overall

economic situation in the country. For them it is a period of glorious growth. Year in.

Year out. The current fiscal therefore was no different from the one before it. Or even

the few years in the past.

This year training revenues jumped to Rs 856.08 crore. A

growth of 30 percent over the last year figure of Rs 658.21. As has been the case in the

past much of this growth has come from the individual training sector, which recorded

revenues of Rs 766.3 crore compared to Rs 609.4 crore over the 1996-97 fiscal. While this

is lower than the 45 percent growth recorded by the training sector the previous year, it

is still a healthy enough figure given the overall performance of the IT industry, in fact

the general industry this year.

The situation in corporate training was completely

reversed. Slugging off the almost sluggish growth of the previous years, corporate

training revenues raced to around Rs 90 crore-which is over 80 percent more than the

previous year's figure of Rs 48.84 crore. This figure, however, does not reflect the true

extent of the corporate training market, as much of the training in this sector gets

reported under individual training.

While the majors continued to record consistent growth

rates, the story of the previous year was Lakhotia Computer Center (LCC). This

Calcutta-based training institute decided to embark on a major expansion plan which

resulted in revenues jumping from Rs 44 crore of 96-97 to Rs 53 crore for 97-98. Not only

that, the institute has finally shed its tag of being a regional heavyweight by making its

presence felt in other parts of the country. Delhi now has 19 LCC centers, opened

simultaneously in what is being termed as the largest single launch of training centers,

and they have spread as far west as Goa. The strong growth has catapulted Lakhotia into

the ranks of the Top 3 where it now shares space with the big two-NIIT and Aptech. Though

revenue-wise the Calcutta-firm has a lot of catching up to do, it has got off to a good

start.

Hi-End Glory



One word. ERP. One city. Hyderabad. Much of training mileage in the last year centered
around this one word and the companies that do business in it. Oracle, SAP, and Baan. As

the worldwide demand for ERP-trained software professionals increased by leaps and bounds,

so did its training. Hyderabad became the hot spot for ERP training and almost overnight

the city boasted of over 45 institutes offering training in one or the other form of ERP.

Needless to say, there were still more takers, as the lure of the lucre put many young

ambitious professionals into the hands of these institutes. Some of them did go on to get

the jobs of their dreams but for many others it was a nightmare, one that led these young

people to fall prey to unscrupulous training institutes. The IT-savvy AP government woke

up and decided to clean up the training sector. But by then the damage had already been

done. On the flip side, however, this was the new area of growth and the southern region

of the country took the lead in exploiting this opportunity. After Hyderabad, it was

Chennai which took this opportunity. So the trend of ERP professionals getting jobs abroad

continues. The horror stories continue, too. But with increasing awareness, the

fly-by-nights should get weeded out leaving only the serious players behind.

ERP apart, much of the story in training last year

revolved around the emergence of specialized training programs like the Microsoft

Certified Professional (MCP) or even the Novell Certified Engineer. With Aptech and NIIT

coming out with specific training courses to address this sector the ascent was as much on

re-training as on training. Microsoft is the current hot spot for job seekers given the

shortage of Microsoft trained and certified professionals. According to one estimate,

demand for Microsoft trained professionals in the US alone is over five lakh. And this is

only expected to grow this year, along with the growing acceptance of Windows NT. Given

the huge manpower shortfall, the starting salaries for Microsoft trained professionals

range from $ 88,000 to $ 90,000-which is far higher than the industry average of around $

60,000 for any computer programmer. Another advantage that is drawing students to these

kinds of training programs is the certification-which is international in nature. An MCP

or any other professional training certification given in India is valid anywhere in the

world and therefore for students looking for opportunities abroad, this is as good as a

passport to a job.

Going Online



One word: The Internet. One question: Does it work? Yes, says NIIT. No, says Aptech. The
question: Is there money on and around the Net? Yes, says everyone. The methodologies

differ and so do the strategies. While NIIT's President and CEO, Vijay Thadani, says the

Net is where the future is, Aptech's Executive Director, Pramod Khera, says their

experience with Net education has proved that it is not a form of education that will be

very successful. Add to this IIS Infotech's ambitious plans to set up 100 training centers

across the country for Internet training and the picture becomes confused.

Is there money to be made on training on the Net? The NIIT

figures, on which Thadani bases his arguments, show an impressive one lakh dollars a month

from the month of February onwards. This, however, is not so much for online education as

it is for sales of CBTs through the web site. Khera on the other hand says the Net can

never replace instructor-led training and therefore Aptech is working on including the

Internet and its usage as a part of its curriculum, but it is not really looking at

increased revenues coming from its web site. The IIS Infotech game plan is to set up 100

centers across the country, under the brand name of Websity. These centers will impart

training on and around the Internet, including web-browsing. ABRP Reddy, CEO of IIS

Infotech's Education Division, is confident of earning around Rs 25 crore once these

centers are up. His confidence has been bolstered by the tremendous response they got for

the franchisees.

While the Net continued to confuse for another year, the

one area where most of the companies are agreed upon is the international market. Indian

training institutes are globalizing in a big way. The next year should only see this trend

intensify, with both NIIT and Aptech, to begin with, and the rest having drawn up

ambitious plans to set up centers across the globe. An interesting trend that came to the

fore this year is the increased focus on developed markets. NIIT is doing it through the

Net. It has already put the Microsoft curriculum on the web site, it is listed as one of

Oracle's preferred training partners, and also plan to put the CNE training program on the

web site. This apart, it has unveiled ambitious plans that will see its presence increase

in a number of countries within the next two years. Aptech, on its part, is going the

'centers way'. As many as 40 international centers are planned in the coming year.

While training has been witnessing a steady growth over the

last few years, the initiatives of the last two years should actually bear fruit in the

coming year. And most of the new ventures point to more of the training dollars pouring in

from overseas shores.