Opinion
Anil Pant, CEO & MD Aptech Ltd, discusses the factors behind Aptech’s huge success and growth
Anil Pant spoke to ScooNews at the Aptech Career Quest, Doha 2017. Career Quest is an annual student confluence which also serves as a valedictory function for graduating students, along with a platform to attend seminars and talks delivered by leading names in the industry.
Aptech Ltd is the largest Indian non-formal education company with presence in around 40 countries. Since its commencement in 1986, Aptech has effectively ventured into ten diverse sectors ranging from IT training to personal development.
Anil Pant took over as the CEO and MD of the company in November 2016 and within a year, he has been setting new benchmarks and taking the company to new heights. He firmly believes that India is on a path towards the trend of micro-entrepreneurship, and that the discussion of jobless growth is far from reality. Under his leadership, Aptech has made a strategic shift from enrollment-driven employment to employment-driven enrollment and Aptech has been registering a 100% placement record.
A shrewd businessman and a charismatic leader with gestures as sharp as his looks, Anil Pant spoke to ScooNews at the Aptech Career Quest, Doha 2017. Career Quest is an annual student confluence which also serves as a valedictory function for graduating students, along with a platform to attend seminars and talks delivered by leading names in the industry.
Excerpts from the interview:
Could you tell us what Aptech is focussing on today?
Everybody thinks of Aptech as a software training company. Aptech is much more than that today. Today, the software education part of the business is less than 5 per cent. We have an 85 per cent share in the media and entertainment space where our children, who are trained in our two brands Arena and MAAC (Maya Academy of Animation and Cinematics) – and we train around 40,000 students every year – are placed in almost every media house, every studio. Our children have worked in films like The Mummy, Harry Potter series, Life of Pi; these are some of the famous ones but they have worked in almost every space. Name any studio in the world, our kids are there!
When you look at what we bring to the table for these children, we actually give them a career. The skills that they learn from Arena and MAAC are adequate for them to become a studio head. Some of them are even ambitious to start their own studio.
We also have brands in the aviation, hospitality and retail space. You go to any airport in India and shout, “How many of you studied in Aptech?”. You will find a whole host of people who are working in either baggage-handling, ticketing, in the retail or in the lounges.
We have started courses in banking, finance and insurance as well. Our focus on employability is increasing enrollments.
How are these new courses validated?
We have banking partners like Axis and HDFC. They have validated our courses and based on that they tell us that if a student scores more than a certain percent in our course, they will hire them automatically. Here we are talking about tens of thousands of jobs. They will, of course, be hired at an entry level and they need to work their way up, like they need to in any job they get into.
We spend a lot of money on creating content that is cutting edge, relevant and most importantly, makes a child job-ready. Otherwise, a graduate joins a job and spends ten months learning it and leaves for a new job. So the benefit goes to someone else. What I tell my employers is that I have a child who is job-ready, who needs just a week of induction and he/she can start work. Our business, after we made this change, has been growing at the rate of 35 per cent plus, which is huge in the perspective of education and this has happened in the last one year. Even with resistance from some business groups, I took the best minds in Aptech and I created a group called the Industry Connect and Placement Group. They are the ones who have actually been making a difference. They know everything about content, delivery and what the customer wants, and they are the ones driving this initiative.
What are the challenges you face?
Today the biggest challenge is convincing parents that media and entertainment is a great place to send our children. They still want their children to either be a doctor, engineer, lawyer or a chartered accountant. I’d say media and entertainment is a great space to be in because even if there is a recession, people will cut down on jewellery, clothing and buying a house but they will not cut down on content. They are still going to consume content. Some of you may disagree saying that some of the TV channels are in trouble but I would say that content is still being consumed and jobs are still there.
Just two years back, people were not ready to pay for NetFlix but today every upper middle class home is subscribing to NetFlix. So, people will pay for content.
Look at Bangladesh as a country. It is the second largest country that is exporting software on the independent platform, not as IT service companies. There are platforms today where people post software work as services and you can quote and bid for that. Almost 300 million dollars of revenue came into Bangladesh because of foreign exchange through this one source. People are willing to outsource a lot of this editing and VFX work to small enterprises because something that cost $12 a frame now costs $1-$2 a frame.
How important is updation of curriculum for Aptech courses?
In this age of Internet of Things, Cloud, Big Data, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Gaming, we need to keep our courses updated with whatever new comes in. For example, when GST came in, we created a course on GST. Every small city needs a GST consultant. We have created at least 5,000 people who are capable of supporting small businesses with GST implementation in the country.
Do you plan to diversify into providing services for schools?
We are already doing that now with a product called Learning Ladder. We have content right from nursery to high school. We haven’t monetised it yet. It’s an investment that we have made in the content. We have landed our first customer in Australia. We are looking at how to structure this so that we can embed it in schools. We may not even bring this to India because India is too regulated a market. We would rather go to a market where people will value the content for what it is. Learning Ladder is about experiential learning.
Do you give a cent percent guarantee for placement?
We do not give a guarantee. If we do, then the demands will increase. The student will say he wants a job that will give him Rs.1 lakh a month, a car, a 4-day work week etc. But we still have a record of hundred per cent placement.
Could you tell us about Aptech Qatar’s collaboration with Middlesex University?
It is a matter of great pride for us. Middlesex University is ranked 73rd in the world and IIT Bombay is 179th. They have entered into an articulation with us that a child has to study there for a year post two years in Aptech and they will get a UK degree. Children can save so much money that way. They can choose to study in any of their four campuses – London, Dubai, Malta and Mauritius.
Do you conduct a screening process for admissions to Aptech courses?
No, we don’t. Let me be honest, we want as many students as we can get. Our job is to take someone in the unemployable segment of society and make him/her employable. Most of our students come from typically SEC B and below.
Are you focussing on expansion in India or internationally?
Both. I have a domestic team that drives business in India and another team that drives the international business. We are moving into new countries. We are looking to expand to developed countries. We have just started our initiative in Australia. We are looking at Germany as a focus area. The problem with Western Europe is an aging population. A lot of the low-end IT, hospitality, beauty training and retail jobs don’t have too many people. So there is a big scope for this business in these countries, especially with immigrants. For example, one of the programmes that we have proposed is in Germany for Syrian refugees, saying that why don't we take these women, create a 9-month programme to teach culture, language and skill so that they can become a part of society. We will roll this out in townships in South Africa next year.
What is your message to the youth of our country?
I just have one message: Just don’t run after attaining educational degrees because merely earning a degree will not help you attain a skill for doing a job. There are enough and more jobs available. Just make yourself skilled enough so that you are fit for the job.
This interview appears in our October 2017 issue.