Globsyn's deputy general manager Subrata Gangopadhyay told The Financial Express "Negotiations are at an advanced stage with eight parties of which three will be selected so that there is one centre each in north, central and south Calcutta."

The investments for each of these centres will be around Rs 50-60 lakh but the initial investment may vary upon the kind of financing the partner wants to use. It could be Rs 20 lakh to start off with, Gangopadhyay said.

Globsyn is also keen on opening one centre in North Bengal, but the responses from there have not been too encouraging. Another centre is coming up in Bhubaneswar.

While Globsyn is not making any financial investments in these ventures it will take care of advertising and promotion of the ventures. It willalso post one of its officers at the centre to operate as a consultant to the business partner for six months.

Nineteen applications from Calcutta were received against a Globsyn ad issued in February this year looking for partners. Globsyn will be paid a royalty on a per student basis. The plan is being made on a 75 per cent occupancy of students and the arrangement will be for a 5-year term.

These centres will offer the Total Software Professional (TSP) course of Globsyn along with a new course that has been christened Young Software Developer (YSD).

The TSP course will not be conducted at the Technocampus, which will run the Young Software Manager (YSM) course only. The Technocampus at Salt Lake, Calcutta has been styled as the only finishing school in information technology in India. Henceforth the Technocampus will function as an R&D centre and testing ground for new courses.

Gangopadhyay said "We are looking at a formal launch soon and thereafter there will be two sets of common entrance testsfor students of YSD and TSP.

He said "We are extending the concept of finishing school to students who could not qualify for an engineering course. While the YSM course is restricted to engineering graduates and MCAs, these two courses will address the body of students doing graduation in other streams."

TSP is an intensive 7-month course, five days a week, 7.5 hours a day. The YSD will be for undergraduate students and will run parallel to undergraduate courses for a two-and-a-half year duration.

"We see it as an attempt to narrow the gap between a student's effort to get a job and the job itself, increasing his IT-effectiveness and increasing his value," Gangopadhayay said.

"While the course fees are similar to other courses of the duration of YSD, the content creates the difference as it trains the student in technology and management orientation," Gangopadhayay said.