This demand also fuelled the demand for two new courses: the two-year Master of Computer Application (MCA) closely followed by the three-year Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA). Traditionally, any engineering aspirant unable to get admission in a BE/BTech course would go for an MCA to enter the IT industry.

In addition to MCA/ BCA, which were formal degrees, this period also witnessed a boom in short and medium-term courses run by institutes not attached to any university which led to the award of a certification or a diploma. Another trend which stoked the demand in addition to the IT jobs was the growing necessity of basic computer skills in most desk jobs. For any college going student, it is necessary nowadays to at least have a basic idea about computers before he or she steps into the job market.

Profiles

 
Courses

Broadly, there are two kinds of programs on offer in the market, one category is that of the Short-term Programs and the other are long-term programs also called as Career Programs. “Short-term Programs are generally 2-5 month programs leading to certifications or diploma. These short-term courses range from basic computer literacy to equipping the individual in specialist skills in one or the other IT disciplines,” explains NIIT’s Raghavan.
 

In many Engineering colleges, these institutes are helping to deliver the necessary IT skills to enable recruitment. “In computing, a lot of colleges have the curriculum but don’t have the teachers and a lot of similar issues. The IT recruiters look for these basic programming skills which we help deliver,” says Ninad Karpe, CEO & MD of Aptech Limited. “Sometimes we even take classes on the campus, on request we help them deliver a specific module or a specific section or someplace where there is a vacuum, we come to fill those gaps,” he adds.

The second category of programs are the longer Career Programs which can range from 1 year to 3 years. The class schedule ranges from 3-4 hrs/day, 5 days a week kind of a programme to 2 hrs/day, 3 days a week kind of a programme. It all depends on the student’s aptitude and the availability of his time.

Raghavan of NIIT says, “Our flagship programme in the long-term domain is the three-year GNIIT in which we train the students for 2 years and the third year they spend in the industry in what we call as Professional Practice which is a unique programme in the sense that it brings the student and the world of studies to the world of work.”

Though during the Professional Practice time it is a full-time involvement but the student reportedly gets a stipend which averages around Rs 10,000 to 11,000 per month. The most exciting thing according to Raghavan in this GNIIT program is the Cloud Campus. Cloud Campus means making learning available to the students 24x7 by putting all the learning resources on the cloud, which include:

The students are given a laptop and a data card and they can access all these facilities from anywhere. In addition, the courseware is also loaded on the laptop itself.  On the other hand, Ninad is quite gung-ho about Microsoft certifications which Aptech is providing training for in its traditional 2-year course which they call a career course. “We’ve had an agreement with Microsoft where their curriculum becomes a part of our curriculum in our normal two-year program.

This leads to dual certification: the students get our certificate as well as the Microsoft certificate on appearing for the Microsoft exam. It saves you the bother of attending separate classes for the Microsoft exam. The students also have the option of going in for a three-year course leading to a BCA degree,” he says.
 

According to Microsoft, “Microsoft Certification is the premier credential for IT professionals worldwide and is available for most Microsoft technologies and across all skill levels. Available for a diverse spectrum of job roles and responsibilities, this certification validates candidates’ ability to successfully perform critical IT functions.” A detailed listing of the various certifications on offer by Microsoft is presented in the column alongside.

 

NIIT has developed a range of techno-commerce programmes specifically targeted at the commerce/BCom students and have first launched it in Mumbai. “When they go for profiles like ERP, Tally or Management Information Systems (MIS), they are required to know things like Management Accounting which are not covered in their college syllabus,” says Raghavan explaining the rationale behind this new slew of courses varying in duration from less than 1 month to around 2 years.
 

 Aptech has tied up with Middlesex University for their 3-year BSc course. The students do two years of study with Aptech for which they get full credits and they then go directly into the third year of the course at their campus in either the UK, Dubai or Mauritius. “This programme is very popular in a lot of African countries and we are soon going to roll it out in India,” says Ninad, with a quiver of excitement .

In addition to these traditional domains, players in the industry have diversified into various other related fields like Multimedia, Aviation and Hospitality Management. “We have started an association with a distance education university, M.S. University of Tamil Nadu, a recognised State university. Along with them, we are offering a BSc course in Animation and a BBA as well as a Diploma course in Mass Media and Communication,” says Ninad. “The other thing we’ve done is we’ve launched English as a separate vertical which we also offer to our internal students to help them improve their soft skills,” he adds.

 

“If you are an engineer or going to be an engineer and you do a 5-month diploma programme with us, you can land a job as a software programmer with a salary ranging from 2 lakhs to 2.5 lakhs rupees per annum,” says Raghavan. “If you are a Commerce student and if you do a Diploma in Finance and Accounting with us, you can land a job of the same range,” he adds. So any student with a solid graduation like an Engineering Degree or a Bachelor’s in Commerce and who does a 5-month diploma can land a job with salary of 2-2.5 lakhs, that’s the bottom-line.