Education Plus
Karnataka
Chennai
Coimbatore
Hyderabad
Madurai
Tiruchirapalli
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
A long-distance MBA
DEEPA KURUP
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A ICFAI course based on the Harvard model
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The dynamics of the industry is such that working professionals often find that it is not enough to specialise in their trades to get ahead. It is essential to learn to manage people and understand finance. While management institutes have been offering executive MBAs for working professionals, ICFAI has gone a step ahead and announced its long-distance executive MBA course.
Clients often complain that the Indian graduate is excellent at coding and project delivery, but fails to understand business or even communicate. To rectify this, several companies offer to send their employees for executive MBA programmes and pay for their higher education.
Most companies prefer candidates with management degrees. Though working professionals may want to study and increase their chances of climbing up the corporate ladder, many find it impractical to take a break from their career. The long-distance course offered by ICFAI is the first of its kind.
The course is modelled along the executive MBA course offered at the Harvard School of Business. It takes a case study model approach where students have to present 11 case studies and attend two workshops. “People may not be in a position to take a break from their jobs. They may also feel insecure about letting go of their current job,” says Senapathy, faculty, ICFAI, Hyderabad. The only criteria for eligibility is that the candidate should have six years of work experience.
’Complete experience’
“This is a tailor-made course which will give them the complete experience of going through an MBA. We present them with case studies, they have to talk to people and work out a complete project on the basis of which we will evaluate them,” he says.
The students can use their spare time to work on the projects. Examples of case studies: the Tata Singur project or a market analysis on the growth of the IT sector. There are no examinations and all schedules are flexible.
The course can be completed in 18 months, but keeping in mind that working professionals may not find the time to do so, they are given the freedom to complete it within seven years.
“This flexibility is to ensure that they do not feel pressured to complete it in a hurry. When they complete the course will depend on their initiative and the amount of time they are able to dedicate to the course,” says A. Shridhar Kumar, Area Manager of ICFAI Karnataka.
The course includes two five-day workshops on integrated management and managerial effectiveness. “These workshops will help reinforce what they learn during their case studies,” says Prof. Senapathy.
The institute will also provide free journals and in-house magazines that track the latest trends in the industry.
“This is a very important step because there are several industries that insist on MBA graduates. For instance, the telecom industry where companies take in graduates on the condition that they complete their MBA as soon as possible,” says Prof. Senapathy.
“At ICFAI there are students from different companies, who have taken a break to study. We have seen first-hand how difficult it is for most of them,” says Mr. Kumar.
“This course is designed keeping the industry in mind. Keeping attrition levels in mind, companies are willing to go to any level to add value to the quality of their employees,” says Prof. Senapathy.
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Education Plus
Karnataka
Chennai
Coimbatore
Hyderabad
Madurai
Tiruchirapalli
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
|
