Company Secretary course is an external education course like Chartered Accountancy. This means that there is no particular college, which offers this course. There is a statutory organisation (established by an Act of Government of India) called Institute of Company Secretaries of India, which conducts various levels of courses and examinations leading to becoming a registered Company Secretary. For appearing in the examinations, you have to study and prepare at home.

There are three levels of examinations conducted by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India Foundation, Intermediate and Final. Foundation has five papers - English and Business Communication, Basic Economics and Business Environment, Financial Accounting, Elements of Business Laws and Management and Information Systems and Quantitative Techniques. Intermediate examination has eight papers in two groups - General and Commercial Laws, Company Accounts and Cost & Management Accounting, Tax Laws, Management Information Systems and Corporate Communication, Company Law, Company Secretarial Practice, Economic, Labour and Industrial Laws, Securities Laws and Regulation of Financial Markets.

The Final examination has nine papers in three groups - Advanced Company Law and Practice, Secretarial Practice relating to Economic Laws and Drafting and Conveyancing, Secretarial Management and Systems Audit, Financial, Treasury and Forex Management, Corporate Restructuring-Law and Practice, Banking and Insurance-Law and Practice, WTO-International Trade, Joint Ventures and Foreign Collaborations, Direct and Indirect Taxation-Law and Practice, and Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations.

To be eligible to register for the Foundation course, you have to pass 10+2 examination and for the Intermediate course, you have to be a graduate and should be at least 17 years of age. You have to complete the Foundation course within 3 years of registration and the Intermediate and Final examination within 5 years of registration.

For doing the course and appearing in the examinations in all, you will have to spend about Rs 12,000 as of now. For more information, get in touch with The Institute of Company Secretaries of India, 22 Institutional Area, Lodi Road, New Delhi-110003.