Boom time for IT trainers

With offshore information technology personnel training firms springing up countrywide, thousands of trainers are required for India’s fast-track IT training companies. Indra Gidwani

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IT (information technology) — especially writing code and software programs — industry since 1991 when the licence-permit-quota regime which regulated all industrial activity was substantially abolished, is post independence India’s most spectacular industrial growth story.

In less than two decades, India’s private sector IT industry which chalked up an aggregate revenue of $100 billion (Rs.619,800 crore) and employed 2.97 million engineers and technicians in fiscal 2012-13, has imprinted itself upon the global IT industry and Fortune 500 companies around the world. Today front-rank IT software giants such as Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Cognizant are global brands with clients worldwide.

India’s IT offshore training industry got a big boost after Edward Snowden, the famous whistleblower from the US, disclosed that three years ago he had attended a fast-track certified ethical hacker program in Core Java at Koenig Solutions, Delhi, one of the biggest IT training providers in the world. Currently India’s IT training companies, which rake in an annual aggregate revenue estimated at Rs.1,000 crore, command over 50 percent share of the world’s IT training market. Countries such as Brazil, the Philippines and China are emerging as competitors but India continues to be the leader.

With offshore IT training firms springing up countrywide, thousands of trainers are required. They need to have a strong academic background, experience and certification in a specialised programme(s) and possess good communication skills for training diploma, degree and postgraduate working professionals. Students seeking careers as IT training professionals should be B.Sc/BE/B.Tech (IT) graduates or preferably postgrads (M.Sc/ME/ M.Tech (IT), MCA).

For duly qualified IT professionals with teaching/mentoring and communication skills, start- up remuneration ranges from Rs.35,000-75,000 per month in India and several lakhs abroad. “IT training and certification is a $20 billion (Rs.123,920 crore) industry worldwide, of which India’s share will rise to $1 billion by 2020. We can develop a flourishing education tourism industry to tap this growing market,” enthuses Rohit Aggarwal, founder and CEO of the Delhi-based Koenig Solutions Ltd (estb. 1993), which over the past two decades has emerged as the country’s #1 IT training company and among the biggest worldwide.

A maths and computer whiz kid, Aggarwal graduated in computer science and engineering from the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh in 1992, and in the subsequent year promoted Koenig Solutions Ltd.
Starting modestly “as an unremarkable training centre” in Patel Nagar, Delhi and experiencing hard times initially — “it was a challenge to pay the monthly salary bill and we could only survive because of financial support from my father’s company Essen Deinki,” reminisces Aggarwal — Koenig Solutions has quickly transformed into a formidable force in IT training with centres in Bangalore, Goa, Shimla, Dehradun and a new office in Dubai.

Currently, the  company trains more than 5,000 foreign students annually at its centres in India and Dubai in addition to 2,000 Indian students per year. According to Aggarwal, thus far the company has trained more than 20,000 IT professionals from around the world in the programs of over 50 vendors such as Microsoft, CISCO, VM Ware, EC-Council, Oracle, Adobe, PMI, Red Hat, Prince 2, Citrix etc.

WITH KOENIG SOLUTIONS' reputation and credentials as a globally respected offshore IT training corporation established, Aggarwal is poised to ride the wave of massive open online courses (Moocs) by deploying Indian talent to deliver the “flipped classroom” method of learning. “There’s a bright future for IT professionals who opt for a career in training. The revenue of India’s offshore training industry is set to grow tenfold in the next five years,” he predicts.

Fair winds!