The Dragon Learns to Code

From the Indian Express:

"The Haidian centre is the first, and largest, of the over 200 training schools that Aptech has established in 57 different Chinese cities since entering the mainland in 2000. Known by its joint venture with the Jade Bird group, an affiliate of the prestigious Beijing University, the company has maintained the top slot in the IT training market in China for four consecutive years. According to the China Centre for Information Industry Development, Aptech Beida Jade Bird captured around 19 per cent of the country’s IT training market in 2005, up from 14.8 per cent in 2004."

"Laxman Hemnani, Aptech Beida’s Vice-General Manager, is jus-tifiably proud of what they have achieved since the company first came to China. “The best thing we did was decide to go for a joint venture,” he declares. Given that China is a “very specialised market”, he feels that Aptech would have been lost on its own. “Aptech might be a household name in India. But in China, it would have taken time to build awareness about us.” Beida (as Beijing university is known), however, is one of the most powerful brands in China. “It’s every student’s dream just to have their photo taken inside the campus,” says Hemnani."

"If industry forecasts are to be believed, there will be a demand for around 800,000 new software professionals in China in the next three to four years. This is a glaring gap when compared to the 62,000 computer engineering graduates coming out of Chinese universities every year. Not surprisingly, the IT education retail market in the country is forecast to grow between 17 and 19 per cent annually till 2010, according to market intelligence firm IDC. In 2004, Aptech Beida’s revenues increased by 70 per cent over the previous year, to touch $40 million. “This is definitely a big growth market for us,” says Hemnani contentedly." "