According to a study conducted in 2013 by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), only 10 percent of students who join the umpteen numbers of B-Schools barring the IIMs and the IIT B-Schools are employable. Due to this very reason, many students are pursuing their MBA programs after few years of corporate experience. Seeing a major opportunity to empower working executives to climb the corporate ladder faster with a broader understanding of the business world, a noteworthy number of B-Schools have started providing Executive MBA programs which have become more popular.
"We have close to 3000 working professionals who attend classes for 64 weekends or 104 Sundays apart from pursuing their demanding jobs and have reached high levels on the corporate ladder," says Mahesh Ranade, Director of the Executive Education Center (EEC) which is part of the ITM Group of Institutions. Founded in 1992, ITM - EEC offers executive MBA programs for working professionals and has a network of 15 centers across major cities in India such as Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi and others. Ranade adds that, "A major criterion while selecting students is to see their motivation to commit their Sundays." Though this is used as an important criterion, ITM - EEC looks at the work experience a student has under his belt as well.
The institute offers two programs to students depending on their work experience. Students with a minimum work experience of 6 years can join the Executive MBA program, whereas candidates with 2 years can look at the Executive MBA with a specialization. The institute has set up all of its centers with contemporary infrastructure facilities such as AC classrooms, projectors, computer labs, WiFi and other facilities. "We have ensured that the campuses are close to the homes or offices of these working professionals who have signed up for the EMBA program with us," says Ranade. Due to its flexible schedule, students can attend evening classes on weekdays or on Saturdays or the entire Sundays. For corporates ITM-EEC also conducts classes on the companies' premises for the convenience of their employees.
Hire Senior Executives as Faculty
While many institutes may have setup their own campuses around the country, one of the most important necessities that they all fail at is to recruit quality faculty members. "Fortunately, we have been able to achieve our pool, due to the fact that all our faculty members are all working senior executives who have a passion for teaching and want to genuinely pass on their knowledge," says Ranade. As ITM - EEC places an enormous value on the emphasis on teaching, it has ensured to recruit the best of working professional such as General Managers, Vice Presidents, CEOs, CXOs and others with more than 15 to 20 and even 30 years of experience as faculty members. The content that they provide the students with is current, contemporary and most importantly practical in nature. "As the students are always interested in actively participating in all the activities that are conducted in the classroom, the faculty members are able to teach them the concepts with ease," says Ranade.
Apart from these benefits, if and when the faculty members feel that the subject content is not relevant and necessary, they have the freedom to discuss with the management to change it. Over the years, the management has phased out particular courses which were deemed irrelevant and introduced new courses which were more relevant and up to date with the current industry requirement. One such example has been the introduction of Digital Marketing. At the same time of introducing the Digital Marketing course, the institute realized the importance of E-content or digitalized content. Therefore the institute has been actively creating e-content for all of its subjects and is on the verge of launching a platform that will be available to all of its students across the globe.
The best aspect that the institute has noticed while overseeing the EMBA program is the fact that the students do a lot of networking which will help their careers grow. "The 3000 students who pursue the EMBA program at our institute represent more than 1200 companies out of which 400 companies are well known brands," claims Ranade. He believes that the candidates therefore who are not happy with their current jobs are recruited by these 400 companies which enhances the candidates' career opportunities. The institute has also set up its own placement office which will help the candidates advance their careers with new organizations. The institute hopes to establish more number of short term programs and centers across India while strengthening the existing ones and hoping to take it to new heights.
Mr. Mahesh Ranade, Director, ITM - EEC
A double postgraduate in Management, he is currently the Director of the ITM - Executive Education Center (EEC). Apart from the 30 years of corporate experience spread across Management Education, BPO, Telecom and Business Automation Industry, Mahesh has been working in the Education sector for the last 3 years. He has taught MBA programs MBA programs at Symbiosis, ITM Business School, ICFAI Business School, SP Jain, and others as he has a passion for education and teaching.
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