On the success of commercial IT education in India

Education has traditionally been the domain of the formal sector. Though the system is heavily subsidised, it is rigorous and produces graduates of good quality -- whether they be engineers or doctors or other professionals. The spread of commercial education has been limited because of restrictive laws and the presence of a robust formal education system. However, as far as IT education isconcerned, non-subsidised private enterprises clearly have an edge over the government-funded universities. This is because not only are the initial investments that need to be made in the requisite infrastructure high, rapid changes taking place in the IT sector result in high recurring investments as well. Besides, one needs the flexibility to introduce new courses to suit the rapidly changing market needs and this is lacking in the traditional university system.

On the competitive advantage of Indian IT education companies

IT training and education are two entirely different businesses. Training courses are normally targeted at professionals wanting to upgrade their knowledge. Education, on the other hand, is targeted at students who want to make a career in the field. Worldwide, commercial organisations have been focussing on training. In India, too, the focus was initially on training programmes that typically lasted for 6-12 months.

However, towards the end of the 80s, career-orientedcourses began to be offered and these have become immensely popular. Aptech launched such a programme offering a three-year curriculum that could be completed along with graduation in 1989. This was a huge success as it opened up the possibility of a career in the emerging IT sector. Students who took up a three-year university graduation course after having failed to secure admissions into medicine or engineering felt that they could only gain from IT education.

More so, since the enrollment in IT education courses did not mean that they would have to forego their college admissions. Today there are no large commercial organisations offering IT education in the developed countries. While there exists a huge market for IT education in other developing countries, that in many ways are similar to India, there is not a single MNC in the sector. This opens up interesting opportunities for Indian E&T companies that already have a working model. Aptech has already had resounding successes in the Middle East andin Bangladesh. We are now looking at China as a huge market and we hope to establish 1,000 centres there in the next 10-15 years. Other Indian companies have also set up centres abroad and most of these are doing extremely well. IT education is a field where one could see the emergence of truly Indian MNCs.

On the importance of brand-building

Developing a strong brand is important in every business. One has to ensure that there are positive images associated with one's brand and this does not come about through advertisement alone. Especially in the education field, it takes a long time to establish brand equity. Since it is the question of one's career, one would like to ensure that one enrolls into an institute of good repute. A reputation is built only on the basis of previous successes. In other words, if your students are accepted well by the industry and you are able to consistently get good placements for your students, you would find that there is no dearth of students wanting to enrollfor your courses.

Besides an overall corporate image, it is becoming increasingly important to brand your products as well. Take for instance, three of our brands - Aptech Computer Education, Arena and Asset. While Aptech Computer Education offers careers in IT and software engineering, Arena is a product designed for people looking at a career in multimedia applications. Asset is oriented towards addressing the training needs of a working professional or an engineer. Branding products in this manner helps students in deciding which is the best course for them to join. Besides, it also makes it easier for prospective employers to choose their recruits as a brand like Asset or Arena promises a certain standard of inputs and since one is aware of these inputs one need not go into the details of the various courses done for every candidate.

On the key success factors for an IT education company

There are three key success factors for any education company. The first one being the relevance of thecourse content. Not only should the curriculum be exhaustive to cover all the necessary aspects pertaining to a particular job requirement, it should also be current. This is specially so in IT education as the industry undergoes rapid changes. The second factor is ensuring a path to further studies for the successful candidates. As commercial education companies cannot award degrees by themselves, it becomes important to tie up with recognised universities and other certification bodies. The third and perhaps the most important factor is employability across the globe. International certifications help a person to acquire credentials that are valid anywhere in the world and gain employment in any country.