Thursday, 21 July 2011

Business schools revamp courses to make graduates industry-ready

Driven by the changes in the corporate needs, Indian business schools are considering change in its curriculum. Indian business schools will together attempt at changing the course curriculum, which was last tweaked by some of them in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial meltdown. This is the first time that B-schools will jointly brainstorm on curriculum. 

A few institutes, including the IIMs, introduced subjects like ethics and social-cultural environment two years ago when MBA education was under fire for causing the sub-prime crisis and later failing to contain the global recession. Now more and more companies are picking up grads with on-field experience, sending institutes into a huddle for a long-term revamp plan. 

Some 65 representatives from various 30 B-schools (including six IIMs) and some companies will meet at a conference on Friday to kick-off what is termed as a process to decide the road ahead for management education in India. "Roadmap that emerges from the conference will be shared with Indian B-Schools to help them reformulate their curricula," said IIM-A faculty Vijaya Sherry Chand who is a member of the conference's organising committee. 

In February, Harvard Business School said it would move away from its case-study approach and focus more on ethics and team work. The changes are aimed at creating leaders of competence and character, rather than those with connections and credentials. 

An IIM-C faculty said that the study is being finalised and there is a need to address issues like what type of skill sets do recruiters need. "We are also thinking of recruiters' perspective for fresh candidates and experienced candidates. We will discuss about the weightage given to on-field experience and classroom education. The discussions will initially lead to a re-look at the current curriculum and it will impact our future curriculum," he added.

No comments:

Post a Comment