Zee Interactive Gets Irda Nod To Train Agents

Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS), the wholly owned subsidiary of Zee Telefilms, has received approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) to provide training to insurance agents across the country.

Zee Interactive, which had tied-up with Limra International, an infotech firm, to initiate new projects aimed at the insurance sales force and, unit managers in the industry will be providing training through this alliance.

Dilip Mahapatra, chief operating officer of Zee Interactive, said: "After the opening up of the insurance industry, mandatory training is now a pre-requisite for agents in the insurance sector."

The training will include basic skills in need-based selling as well as training in financial planning services. In the management area, training will be provided in basic management training, supervision, recruiting, selection and motivation.

In another development, the company has also bagged an order from a UK-based education company for developing an e-learning solution for deployment on a global basis.

"The order, worth around half-a-million-dollars, is in the nature of a pilot project for an institute based in Malaysia. On successful completion of the project, the scope of work may be extended to involve the other global centres," Mahapatra added.

The company is also planning to increase its centres to about 400 by the end of the calendar year, up from the current 300. About 75 per cent of these would be I-Cell centres - the interactive classrooms started by ZED Career Academy.

Zee Interactive follows a franchising model for its centres with only about 10 per cent of the total centres exclusively owned by Zee Interactive. The plan is to achieve around 800 ground centres in the next three years with about 25 per cent being I-Cell centres.

I-Cell centres are interactive centres with a combination of a physical and interactive classrooms with the central studio linked to multiple centres across the country through a dedicated V-Sat network.