IT courses a passage to India

India has become synonymous with international technology outsourcing. Now Delhi-based training company Koenig Solutions is encouraging Kiwis to go to India to get IT qualifications that are certified by companies such as Microsoft and Cisco.

Koenig offers "boot camp" courses with the option of one-on-one training at a price it claims is half that charged by New Zealand providers.

A Microsoft Certified Software Engineer 2003 course taught one-on-one over 14 to 19 days in Delhi costs US$3050, or $3750 if taught in a group over 50 days. One New Zealand provider was last week advertising the same qualification for $14,800.

Prices include food, transport and accommodation in anything from budget to five star hotels in Delhi, Dehradun, Goa Beach or the Himalayas, but students pay their own way to India.

Chief executive Rohit Aggarwal says 2000 people from the United States, Europe and Australasia - including nine New Zealanders - have taken Koenig's courses since 2001.

Koenig is now represented in New Zealand by Wellington firm IT Projects, which was set up last year by knowledge management consultant Praba Subra. Mr Aggarwal says Koenig has received 32 inquiries from New Zealanders in the past four months.

Mr Subra says the practice of travelling to India for IT training is well-established in Europe and the US, but he expects it to take a while to catch on in New Zealand.

"The first question people usually ask is whether the training is delivered in English" - which it is. "It is hard for people to believe standard training is delivered across the world," he says.

India has also become a hub for "medical tourism" and some students have stayed on for cosmetic or dental surgery, Koenig says on its website.

British newspaper The Guardian is among those to have reported on the phenomenon. Its interviews with students cautioned of "adequate" rather than top-notch technical facilities and the distractions of Goa, but indicated students had found Koenig's courses to be value for money.

Koenig says its pass rate is 95 per cent for Microsoft qualifications and 90 per cent for Cisco's.

Douglas White, chief executive of the New Zealand Computer Society, had not heard of New Zealanders going overseas to gain professional IT qualifications, except when that was arranged by multinationals such as IBM and SAP. But he says it should not matter where people get their qualifications, so long as courses were accredited by vendors.

"Microsoft, for example, is pretty insistent on their providers being consistent."

- © Fairfax NZ News