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G. Naga Sridhar
K.V. Kurmanath

Hyderabad, Nov. 21 SAP ECC 6.0 (FI/CO, SD, HR, ABAP) .NET 3.5, Sharepoint 2007, Oracle Apps. Technical, SQL Ser.2005. These are the names of a plethora of job-oriented, information technology (IT) courses that promised the moon and most often delivered too.

At quite high costs, these courses were passports to plum jobs in the thriving IT industry, both domestic and abroad. But that was till a few weeks ago. Today, they virtually stand shunned, with the number of people seeking to join them plummeting. This is a direct fallout of the slowdown of the global economy and its cascading impact on the IT companies.

“There is a severe slowdown in the software training industry and people are just now avoiding any high-cost specialised software training, leaving many training institutes high and dry,” Mr M.H. Noble, Managing Director of Zoom Technologies, an IT training institute, told Business Line.

“There are takers only for low-cost hardware training courses, which are now being seen as more “stable” in job opportunities,” he said. A manager of School of IT Education feels that the situation is quite tough for the entry-level job seekers. “Employers have become extra cautious and are demanding a minimum of 2-3 years experience,” she feels. But there are courses like PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) that guarantee jobs at the lower level.

Though the impact of slowdown is widespread, it is testing and java courses that are hit most, going by the experience of some institutes. A testing institute in Hyderabad, which used to teach 800 students till a few weeks ago, is deserted, with just a handful of students turning up.

The impact is quite visible in key pockets populated by these institutes. For example, Ameerpet, which is dotted with hundreds of IT training institutes that used to register over two-lakh footfalls a month is now witnessing only 50,000 students attending the courses.

“This is true in many major cities. The larger audience is not taking to training in software-centred courses now. Any programme which is long-term is a strict ‘no’ now,” Mr K. Ramakrishnan, Deputy General Manager of the leading IT training institute APTECH, said.

A senior NIIT executive, who did not want to be identified, said that there is over a 40 per cent fall in people seeking software training in the last six months.

Mr V. Satish, a freelance SAP trainer, said that at least 30 institutes, mostly small-time ones, closed shop in recent weeks. “The slowdown may be temporary. The training market would revive, say, after 3-4 months. ,” he said.

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