Providing Sustainability in the Changing Paradigms
In a highly competitive world, majority of the industries do not assign anyone to train fresh management recruits. Hence, today\'s fresh MBA graduates are expected to be business ready executives who can feel the pulse of the market and adapt to a rapidly changing business environment. Located in Pune, Maharashtra, a state that witnessed a massive decline of post graduate management programs due to the deficiency of quality education, Vishwakarma Institute of Management (VIM), a flagship B-School of Bansilal Ramnath Agarwal Charitable Trust (BRACT), seems to be in a different league.
With 36 Industry tie-ups, 56 senior industry professionals on the advisory board, 100 industry connect activities over two year program and 200 hours of employability enhancement programs, VIM has been scripting a curriculum that is relevant to national priorities and international practices since its establishment in 2001. \"Industries today give lot of importance to the performance and attitude of the candidates over the subject of knowledge. Performer with the right attitude is what is going to last for long and our course contents are aligned with student aspirations and expectations of stakeholders, specifically recruiters,\" says Dr. Umesh Patwardhan, Director, VIM. To revise the curriculum according to the changing paradigms of the business world, the institute has created Academic Advisory boards in each management function that comprise of top-notch, highly experienced and committed senior industry professionals who act as a guiding light for its various industry interface initiatives.
Today, the curriculum of VIM comprehensively includes new skills and competencies, application orientation by considering changing mindset of learners and concerns expressed by the industry by providing basket of skill sets such as communication skills, inter-personal skills, attitude, awareness of business environment, technology proficiency, analytical thinking, problem solving, cross functional perspective, peer and experiential blended learning. \"As a management institute that has been permanently affiliated to University of Pune, we have to follow certain norms. However, we are trying to make the difference by seeking industry partnership extensively to provide necessary skills that will help the students to perform better with right attitude when they enter the market,\" claims Dr. Patwardhan.
The institute has associations with National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), Project management institute (PMI) and Industry bodies such as � CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), MCCIA (Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce Industries & Agriculture) and ISTD (Indian Society for Training & Development) for a better understanding of the latest trends in the domestic market. VIM also has a rare distinction of being the first management institute in the country to have partnership with IBM to deliver its IBM CEBT programs while MoU with National Stock Exchange (NSE) to offer joint Executive certification Program in \"Financial Markets\" and Capital Market Professional (NCCMP) and Certificate Programs in HR Analytics and Quality Management are the aspects of differentiating VIM from the crowd.
However, VIM\'s industry collaborations are not limited to activities like Corporate Mentoring, Live Projects, Shadowing, Faculty Sabbaticals, Case Study Development, Winter Projects, Domain Seminars and State / National level Conferences. For VIM, industry � academia relationship is a two way process. Through research, training and consultancy services, they offer solutions to corporate world. SANDOZ, Tata Steel, Wartsila India Limited, Bridgestone India, Anand Textiles, Praj Industries, Rohan Builders and Ansys India are to name few, who are benefited by the support of VIM faculty as well as students. \"Our faculty members constantly update themselves through research, industry projects, coachingand mentoring. We encourage them to carry out joint research with industry, alumni and entrepreneurs and develop case studies with industry partners,\" says Dr. Patwardhan.
On the academic front, faculties of VIM carry more than 225 years of collective experience from diverse sectors, which give them the confidence to act as catalysts that can help students to acquire conceptual and analytical abilities required for appropriate decision making and effective implementation. The collaborative efforts from management, faculty and industry have helped the institute to register good figures in the placement. While the highest package at the campus recruitment has gone up to Rs. 8.5 lakhs per annum last year at VIM, the average package was close to 3 lakhs per annum.
Though the institute has gained reputation among students and industry by creating graduates who can start working from day one, the management of VIM does not want to expand their activities in too many directions. Dr. Patwardhan confidently concludes, \"Our focus is to continue providing the kind of education that equally satisfies the student\'s needs and industry\'s demands. However, as we are living amidst ever-changing business scenarios, we would inculcate the modern practices in the management education to make our students sustainable in the industry.\"
Dr. Umesh Patwardhan, Director
A PhD holder in the field of Marketing, Dr. Umesh Patwardhan has been influential as the Director of VIM. A committed leader, Dr. Patwardhan says, \"We are not in the race of profit making through education. We want to equip our students to face the real challenges in the industry by providing application oriented employability training.\"
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