Tata Interactive Systems appoints senior UK designer

Jackie Barnett has become the UK lead instructional designer for Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), which has one of the world's largest teams for the design and development of custom-built e-learning solutions.

Barnett, who joined TIS from VEGA Group plc where she was a consultant specialising in course design, has worked as a course designer for Barclays Bank Training Services and, before that, enjoyed a career as a secondary school teacher of French and English. She is a graduate of the University of London, the Open University and the University of Wales, Bangor, as well as being a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development CIPD.

Sambit Mohapatra, the head of TIS in the UK, Europe and Middle East, commented: "In the last year or so, TIS has expanded its operations in the UK. This continuing increase in our business in the UK has prompted us to expand our design operation there."

TIS's chief executive, Sanjaya Sharma, commented: "As a result of increasing demand over the last month or so, we have increased our e-learning design teams in India by around 100 people, bringing the total employees in the company to some 450. Our continued growth now gives us a projected annual global turnover of around Ј15m this year."

The Mumbai-based company, which has offices in the UK, USA, the Middle East and Australia, is part of the Tata group, India's largest business house comprising 86 companies, employing over 330,000 people and accounting for some two per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP). The group continues its original practice – established nearly a century ago – of distributing a proportion of its profits to charity, including funding India's largest cancer hospital.