The signs of recovery in the global infotech industry seems to be rubbing onto the infotech education business, which is looking to bounce back this year.

The infotech education business is expected to grow at least 30 per cent during the current financial year, after failing to register any growth in the previous two years.

According to the leading infotech education companies in India, like NIIT, Aptech and New Horizons, students are showing greater interest in their professional courses now compared to a few months ago.

NIIT, in its first-quarter results declared last week, reported a 8 per cent rise in its turnover from the infotech education business to Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).

"We are seeing strong signals for an improved business scenario. There is an improvement in the sentiments about infotech jobs and the rate of hiring has improved," a NIIT spokesperson said.

The other companies are yet to declare their results for the quarter.

The companies said the revival in business was spurred by an improvement in hiring by software companies.

According to industry estimates, hiring by software companies grew 36 per cent in March 2003 compared with 8 per cent in March 2002.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies said infotech companies added 28,000 jobs in the last six months.

The Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) infotech education business also gained as more companies started providing training in infotech-enabled services like business process outsourcing.

According to Nasscom estimates, 65,000 ITES jobs were added in the country during the last six months.

"The infotech training industry has been able to broadbase its offerings to include the domains of ITES, BPO and multi-media, besides creating new training opportunities in areas like networking and hardware training," Pramod Khera, CEO and managing director of Aptech Ltd, said.

"As a result, the industry is seeing an up-trend this year. It will be premature to predict the exact growth numbers at this stage, but the industry should post better results in this financial year as compared to the previous one," Khera said.

The industry has also benefited from a significant rise in demand in the corporate and government sectors.

"These two sectors have started to train people and we are seeing an improved demand from the retail market as well. The demand will pick up considerably towards the last quarter of the financial year," Ajay Sharma, CEO, New Horizons, said.