UK Board Edexcel to expand in India

Edexcel International, the UK-based awarding body, which offers joint academic and vocational qualifications to schools and colleges world wide, is expanding in India by opening four offices in Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. The cost of the expansion is Rs 10 crore. Edexcel had recently entered the Indian academic space by representing eight schools and is already present in vocational streams. It has partnered with Aptech and IGNOU for offering diploma programmes.

The institution has been operational in India for the last 12 years. It is in talks with Educomp Solutions, Everon Systems and Reliance Retail to bring in curriculum and teacher-student material for quality control. Currently, almost 25,000 students have registered themselves for various Edexcel programmes and the board is now eyeing a 15 per cent market share by 2011. It is also planning to expand its India team from 15 to almost 40 people.

Samiulla Baig, regional director, South Asia, Edexcel, said: “Besides entering the academic space by representing 8 schools, we are also getting into the soft skills space by offering 60 small modules on communication, interviewing skills and behaviour. We are in talks with industry bodies like CII and FICCI to spread awareness anout our board.

After entering the academic space, the $500 million (Rs 2,400-crore) Edexcel expects academics to contribute 20 per cent to its India revenues. The firm expects the vocational streams to contribute the rest. It is also bullish on its ePen technology in which there is a centralised computerised centre for checking and marking the students’ answer sheets that suggests what the students can pursue as their careers. “Some Indian universities and boards are coming to us for this technology as it analyses both the teachers and students and is a transparent marking system, “ explains Baig.

After India, Edexcel plans to open an office in the Maldives in the next eight months.