IT education tranining and consulting organisation, Indian Institute of Hardware Technology Ltd (IIHT), is expanding its operations into Eastern Europe and the Middle East with a view to tapping the new markets opening up training in these geographies.
“The Eastern Europe and Middle East markets are potentially growing markets for IT education. Both markets are presently going through a IT adoption churn similar to what India experienced in the late 1990s, and the market for quality IT training in these geographies is likely to witness exponential growth,” founder and chief executive officer of the company Keshava Raju said.
Raju did not indicate either a timeline or investment target for the expansion plans of the company or the number of centres it plans to add this fiscal. Industry sources added that IIHT is looking at pushing its franchise model further to gain a presence in new and emerging markets for high-end IT training.
Besides providing training university courses and internationally recognized certifications through a vast portfolio of courses down the years, IIHT has also diversified into Infrastructure Management Services (IMS) training and consulting in recent times. A good proportion of the Bangalore-based education major’s workforce comprises expert faculty dedicated to promoting IMS.
The company presently has over 350 franchisees globally, and a presence in over 300 locations across India. It has provided support to its franchisees partners through established SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and handholding.
Started in 1992, IIHT has trained over 10 million students and has a presence in over 20 countries. The company a preferred partner of Microsoft, Cisco, HP, Symantec, Oracle, Redhat, Sun Microsystems, Net Apps and CompTIA in India. It serves as a knowledge partner to many universities and colleges around the world. The company has cooperated with the Sikkim Manipal University to offer degrees in its IMS courses. Last year, it joined hands with HP to deliver the curriculum for HP’s software education offering, HP Software University.
IIHT runs centres of excellence in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Delhi and Bangalore offering training in software programming, IMS, IT security and other areas. IT has also developed a presence in Liberia, Gambia and Ghana in Africa, besides Europe, South East Asia and China.
Over 100,000 students pass IIHT’s various training and certification courses every year, of which 50 per cent qualify for certifications offered by Microsoft, with companies like Cisco and HP bringing up the rest. Of the 300 centres operated by IIHT in India, 180 centres are fully-owned while the rest are franchised. About 20 new centres are proposed to be added in India by the end of March this year.