By Praveen Paramasivam

CHENNAI (Reuters) -UK-based Pearson plans to boost its workforce in India by about 43% to 2,000, an executive told Reuters on Friday, months after the education firm named India one of its top three priority markets globally.

"We will invest significantly in India. We have got three very strong locations and we want to grow in all of these different locations," said Vishaal Gupta, president of enterprise learning and skills division and chair of India at Pearson.

Pearson India operates in education and assessment markets, targeting school goers, students aspiring for colleges overseas and corporate professionals.

The company will hire across various functions, including local business operations and global tech, over the next three years, Gupta said, while ruling out the launch of any new office location. It currently has offices in Noida, Bengaluru and Chennai.

Pearson's shares hit a 10-year high in February after the company reported a rise in profit and said deploying AI would help deliver more growth in 2025.

India's ed-tech market, which was valued at $7.5 billion in 2024, is projected to grow more than three-fold to $29 billion by 2030, according to a Grant Thornton report.

In India, Pearson competes with IDP Education and Educational Testing Service in overseas education segment, and with Upgrad and Coursera in the digital-learning market.

Gupta said the company will focus on government, Indian conglomerates and global capability centers, where a shortage of skilled workers poses a challenge amid growing demand for AI upskilling.

Global capability centers, commonly known as GCCs, are local offices set up by large global companies in India to support their global parent in daily operations, finance, R&D and product development functions.

GCCs are projected to contribute 2% to India's GDP by 2030, according to ICICI Securities, up from less than 1% currently.

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam, writing by Sai Ishwarbharath B; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)