As part of its strategy to focus on the high end segment of the information technology training industry, sector major NIIT has formed a strategic alliance with the US based ITT Educational Services to offer specialised degree courses.
NIIT which has already signed an MoU with ITT Education Services, will offer the 4 year Bachelor's degree in IT with specialisation in Information Systems Security to students in India.
The Indianapolis-based ITT Educaional Services Inc is a leading private college system focussed on technology oriented programmes.
According to P Rajendran, "The move to tie-up with ITT - Educational Services is in line with NIIT's strategy to expand its IT training offerings focussed at specific target groups and technology needs."
In the first year NIIT expects around 2,500 students to enroll for this programme priced at Rs 1.8 lakh for the four year course.
Rene R Champagne, chairman, ITT Educational Services, said, " NIIT's vast experience in instructional design, IT content development and education delivery for global markets, makes it and ideal alliance to take technical education outside the United States."
The emphasis that NIIT is laying on its IT training business can be gauged from the fact that the IT training business contributes almost half of the total revenues that the company earns. The share of the training business comprised less than one fifth of the business in the early nineties.
In another development, NIIT is also trying to kickstart the business in its IT enabled services subsidiary Smart Serve, and is talking to existing customers for expansion of business into this area, said company officials.
SmartServe currently has a capacity of around 120 people at its Gurgaon facility and the company is aggressively pursuing opportunities to develop and subsequently scale up business in this segment.
