The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has entered into a tie-up with the best commerce colleges in the country to offer ICS courses to interested students. The courses will be offered through the study centres of these colleges.

The ICSI courses will be taught by experts after college hours. This will enable the students to earn their CS qualifications by the time they complete their graduation. Atul Mehta, President of ICSI, said that the centres will be opened by this year.

There are also plans to offer these courses online too. But that will take about 18 months to materialize. With the role of Company Secretaries gaining importance in recent times after the Companies Act 2013, Mehta said that, with nine lakh private companies and one lakh public sector companies and with only 40,000 qualified Company Secretaries, employment opportunities are tremendous.