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Tata Info to enter China for IT courses The Asian Age - Nov 22, 2001

Bangalore: It may be cheap products from across the border that are luring Indian consumers, but the country’s information technology talent is aiming to tame the Chinese dragon in its territory by training students behind the Great wall.

Close on the heels of NIIT, the IT training major, setting up training centres in China, Tata Infotech-Education, the education services division of the Rs 525 crore Tata Infotech Limited, is planning a foray into China by offering career-oriented IT courses to university students.

“We are in talks with several universities in China to offer career-oriented IT courses for students,” Mr Rahul Thapan, head, education services division, Tata Infotech Ltd, said on Wednesday.

The company initially plans to test the high potential Chinese market by entering into a tie-up with several Chinese universities and offering long-term courses. "Presently, universities are offering short-term courses to their students and there is a paucity of courses for career-oriented students,” he said.

Stating that language was a great barrier for making an entry into China, Mr Thapan disclosed that collaboration with universities would offer Tata Infotech a strong base to penetrate into other centres in the country.

Tata Infotech, which is aiming to increase its revenues by expanding its operation overseas, had already stared its courses in Vietnam last month with a batch of 50 students. The company already has set-up operations in Colombia, West Asia and the Philippines.

“We want to train students of the first batch and rope them to teach other students in the future. This, we are hoping would help beat the language barrier,” Mr Thapan said. Tata Infotech is presently holding negotiations with a Chinese delegation in Delhi for joint collaborations in training students in IT. The company announced its foray into the IT-enabled services market by launching its customer relationship e-management expert programme, which is aimed at addressing the fast growing call centre market.

“Crème is a specialised programme designed by us in association with Turning Point, a training and assessment systems company, which trains personnel for providing services in the call centre area,” Mr Thapan said.

He added that the one-month course, which costs Rs 20,000, equips students with soft skills, speed-writing, speed-reading, customer relationship management, computer skills and accent training. The student will be awarded international certification from the Canada-based Entretel and the US-based American Accent training.