NIIT partners with ICICI Bank to enter Financial Services Training

NIIT Ltd on September 26, 2006, has announced its entry into training for the financial services sector, with the launch of the IFBI, Institute of Finance, Banking and Insurance. The Company has set up the Institute in partnership with the ICICI Bank, India’s second-largest bank, to cater to the needs of the exponentially-growing Banking, Insurance and Financial Services sectors in India and overseas markets.

The Institute was jointly launched by Mr K V Kamath, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank, and Mr Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman, the Company, at a press conference in the city on September 26, 2006.

IFBI will commence admissions in October 2006 and its first offering, a 6-month full-time programme, the Post Graduate Diploma in Banking Operations (PGDBO), will focus on grooming entry-level professionals for the banking industry. The ICICI Bank has offered to recruit all this students of the first batch as Officers upon successful completion of the programme.

Speaking on the occasion, the Company's Chairman, Rajendra S Pawar said, "The launch of IFBI utilises our reach and expertise in distributed non-formal education and harnesses the domain expertise of ICICI Bank, to move into growing areas of the knowledge economy."

"We are delighted to work together with ICICI Bank, a leader across the financial services spectrum, to set-up this institute. This will serve the manpower needs of the Banking and Financial Services industries," Mr Pawar added

Also present at the launch event were Mr Vijay Thadani, CEO, of the Company and Mr S Venkatesh, Head, IFBI.

The Banking industry currently employs nine lakh people and is expected to grow this number to 15 lakh over the next 5 years. This translates into an additional requirement of 6 lakh professionals with skill sets in this segment.

To start with, IFBI will offer training programmes for the entry-level professionals in the Banking sector. The training programmes will be offered from IFBI education centres set up in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Calcutta.

ICICI Bank has supported IFBI in designing the curriculum and developing the course content, and offering laboratory and internship sites to students. ICICI Bank will also consider granting Education Loans to students selected for the PGDBO programme.

The launch of IFBI follows close on the heels of the launch of NIIT Imperia, Centre for Advanced Learning, through which the Company will offer executive management education programmes in alliance with the IIMs in Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Indore. The Company has identified, these new areas of growth in the rapidly emerging services sector.

Source : Equity Bulls

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