IT trainer Aptech bullish on UP hinterland

Information technology and career trainer Aptech is penetrating deeper into the Uttar Pradesh market by targeting more tier II and III towns. The company, which currently has 70 centres in UP will increase it to 100 by the end of this fiscal.

“The growth is happening in smaller towns, besides the youth in these towns are often reluctant to go to big cities for career training, mainly due to prohibitive costs and security reasons. This is helping our business,” Aptech Limited CEO and MD Ninad Karpe told Business Standard .

The franchisee model in smaller towns entails investment of Rs 15-20 lakh depending upon the place. Aptech has close to 825 centres the country, training verticals spanning computer education, animation, multimedia, hardware and networking, aviation and hospitality, English speaking etc. It also has 270 centres in China and 150 in 40 other countries, including Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, Philippines, Russia and West Asia.

“In the current year, we aim to train 1,50,000 candidates around the world, of which almost 75 per cent would be trained in India,” he informed.

Karpe said the domestic IT education segment has matured over the last 25 years. “However, the animation segment is growing very fast and currently our revenue from this stream is more than the computer education space,” he added.

About 75 per cent of the company’s top-line comes from retail segment, of which the foreign-based centres account for 35 per cent share.

“The remaining 25 per cent comes from enterprise business, including online testing and corporate training,” he said.

Aptech commenced its education business in 1986 and claimed to have trained over 6 million students globally.

The various brands of Aptech include Aptech Computer Education, Arena Animation & Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics, Aptech Hardware & Networking Academy, Aptech Aviation & Hospitality Academy and Aptech English Learning Academy brands.