ICSI plans to extend course reach

The need for company secretaries(CS) in the East can be estimated at over 10,000 now or it could be roughly pegged at 10 job offers per company secretary that passes out, said Mukesh Chaturbedi, chairman, EIRC, ICSI. Eastern India currently had 2000 company secretaries, of whom around 1600 were in service while the rest in practice. Over 25,000 students are currently pursuing the CS course in eastern India and the average sucess rate is around 40 per cent.

EIRC is now looking at adding 3000 students this year only in West Bengal and over 5000 in the entire region covering Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Jharkhand and some other North Eastern states. It wanted to take the numbers up to 10,000 by 2015, claimed Chaturbedi.

There was a demand for oral courses in rural areas as the CS course was a distance learning one with additional e-learning facilities. ICSI decided to tie up with private institutions including law and commerce colleges together with coaching centers and use their infrastructure and faculty for additional training.

It will charge students more than the normal distance learning course fees depending on infrastructure provided.

ICSI-EIRC was looking at tying up with at least eight such institutions in Bihar districts like Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Chhapra, Darbhanga and Danapur.

ICSI aimed to start branches in Siliguri, Haldia and Bardhaman and Agartala and examine the feasibility of a branch in either Durgapur or Murshidabad.

A week-long career awareness programme across the region will be launched on June 30 as a part of the outreach drive.