Indian IT firm Aptech Ltd. to set up Philippine BPO training unit

Aptech Ltd., an Indian information technology (IT) training firm, will set up a Philippine unit next year, its Filipino joint venture partner said last week. Aptech is set to sign a joint venture deal with New Life Pharmaceutical, Inc. this week to start IT training operations in the country, New Life General Manager Sreedhar Nagarajan said in a telephone interview yesterday. The training centers are expected to serve the labor needs of business process outsourcing firms in the Philippines, Mr. Nagarajan said in an interview. Roughly $200,000 in start-up capital will be invested in a main training center in Metro Manila by March, he said. The firm’s expansion, however, will be mainly dependent on franchising, he said. The Philippine unit -- 60% owned by New Life -- will adopt courses offered by Aptech, a company that claims to have trained over five million in five continents, he said. Aptech courses range from animation and multimedia education to hardware and networking training, the firm’s Web site showed. — BusinessWorld