Bangalore: New Horizons India, which offers corporate IT training, has forayed into retail-level IT training in Bangalore. New Horizons will offer specialized IT training to individuals as reported by Business Standard.

Recent studies have indicated a disparity in the requirements of the skills of the IT professional and the number of workers available. This is expected to help create a self-replenishing pool of industry-ready workforce.

According to a Nasscom report, there would be a shortage of over 1 million IT professionals in India by 2009-end. New Horizons which caters to specialized IT training needs at a corporate level, aims to equip the talent pool, mostly students, with the relevant IT skills.

New Horizons, which has trained over 7,000 professionals, expects to train over 500 students in the first year under its retail foray. To begin with, walk-in students will be accepted at the centre in Bangalore.

The training sessions will initially offer Net, Java, Oracle, Linux and Microsoft which are starting immediately. There are 12 modular courses and one career course (in networking) being launched in the retail space. By 2009-end, the number of courses would go up to 20, with two career courses in software and animation.

Ashish Malhotra, assistant V-P, New Horizons said,"We specialize in customized IT training for corporate houses and are now extending this as a retail offering to students. Our decision has been influenced by the escalating demand for skilled IT professionals in the city, especially in the younger age groups and not because of the slowdown in demand for training among corporates."