Information technology education major NIIT will expand its China operations by launching new programmes for that market for software analysts and architects later this quarter.

"China's software development sector needs another 210,000 professionals by 2005 besides 590,000 professionals in 2003. This represents a big opportunity for NIIT to participate in the preparation of networking professionals and programmers," NIIT CEO Vijay Thadani told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday.

He said NIIT would also start filling in the crucial need for software analysts and solutions architect through its new programme to be launched later this quarter.

"We will continue our commitment to the Chinese market by creating many more new products suited for that country," he said.

NIIT top brass including Thadani had visited China in March last week to take stock of the company's operations there in the education business and work out future strategies.

The company opened it first centre in China in 1998 and currently has presence in 25 provinces with over 100 education centres.

The company has tied up with many universities in China.

NIIT sets 5-point agenda for its education biz

NIIT also chalked out a five-point agenda for its education business which would see it focussing on international markets, servicing corporates and institutions more and make alliances with universities in India and abroad for formal training.

"IT and IT-assisted education will be our focus. In the customer segment, we plan to focus on in-service corporates and schools under our K-12 programme from retail and will have the thrust on international business," Thadani said.

While focussing on international business, he said, NIIT would tap both developing and developed countries and in case of the former, it would follow its Indian retail education model while for the latter, NIIT would be interested in tying up with universities there for outsourcing IT courses like its tie-up with ITT Technical Institute of US for four-year degree programme on information security.

The company is also gearing up for a stronger presence in the formal IT training segment from its earlier non-formal focus for moving up the value chain by being affiliated with universities or joining hands with them. It recently entered into a similar tie-up with IIT Delhi to offer bio-informatics courses.

The last of its five point focus will be on moving its education business more towards e-learning and a blend of brick-and-mortar model rather than instructor led training (ILT) alone, Thadani said.