NIIT plans 100 new centres, to invest Rs 8 cr

NIIT Limited, Asia's largest IT education provider, plans to invest Rs 8 crore (Rs 80 million) in the next two years for setting up 100 centres for its new specialised programme on networking and infrastructure -- NIIT NetworkLabs.

"Our new programme, NIIT NetworkLabs, is fully industry endorsed and will help in creating skilled professionals in networking and infrastructure area. We will also invest Rs 8 crore in next two years for setting up 100 specialised centers for this course," NIIT President (Individual Learning Business) G Raghavan told PTI.

The industry is facing an acute shortage of manpower in the networking and infrastructure management sector, he said, adding that "according to an IDC survey, there will be shortage of about one lakh people in this segment".

He said, "we have already launched this programme in Delhi and Chennai and would take this to across 25 cities in near future."

The curriculum of NetworkLabs has been designed in partnership with global technology leaders such as 3Com, Intel, Microsoft and CompTIA, Raghavan said.

The company already has major IT organisations as placement partners, who would absorb NIIT students as per their requirements, he added.

"NetworkLabs will provide students with real time experience of infrastructure management, business desktop deployment among other things making them industry ready," Raghavan said.

NIIT NetworkLabs would be supported by state-of-the-art educational methodologies, which has been designed to impart practical networking skills through dedicated networking and virtual labs.

The students will have the option to specialise in select infrastructure management areas, as part of the programme, Raghavan said.

The programme's duration is about one year and would cost Rs 50,000 per person.

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