INDIACAN TO OPEN 210 VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTRES IN FY'11

Vocational training firm IndiaCan on Thursday said it will expand its footprint in the country by adding 210 centres this fiscal year to impart courses in finance, retail, sales, insurance and information technology.

IndiaCan, a joint venture company of publishing firm Pearson and education solutions provider Educomp, has 40 centres offering vocational courses at present.

"Our intent is to set up 250 centres across the country this fiscal from 40 as of now. These would primarily be in tier-II and -III towns," IndiaCan chief executive officer Sharad Talwar told reporters here.

While 33 centres would be company owned, the rest would be based on the franchise model, he added.

Asked about the investment to be made, Talwar said, "We would be using the US$17.5 million invested by Pearson at the time of the JV formation. Rest what is required would be put in on a joint level."

The company, eventually plans to scale up the number of centres to 600, but he did not specify the time frame.

IndiaCan has partnered with Religare Enterprises and Aditya Birla Retail to offer certification courses on commodity broking and the retail sector, respectiely. It already has a similar agreement with Tally for training people on the accounting software.