CHENNAI, June 13 (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 ( IDPUF ) and

Educational Testing Service in overseas education segment, and

with Upgrad and Coursera ( COUR ) 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)