Our country possesses 3,900 business schools that churn out tens of thousands of MBA graduates every year. This should cause an abundance of managerial talent that the industry can pick from; however, the reality is a far darker one. Of the whole number of students passing out of business schools all over the country every year, less than ten percent are employable, according to a recent study by NASSCOM.
"I thought getting an MBA degree would guarantee a job for me," says Madhav Kishore, an MBA graduate, who has settled for a job far below his qualification. Despite the extensive theoretical and conceptual knowledge, most business schools fail to teach basic communication skills that are required to clear any interview and secure a job. Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, in short WeSchool, understands these requirements that the industry demands and trains its students to be the most competent individuals in the field.
Parikshit Loke, an alumnus of WeSchool, currently working in Mumbai describes himself as an indecisive person. "The one good decision I made was to join Welingkar Institute." "When joined the institute, I was very hasty and was about to take Operations or Marketing. But the college taught me to develop a crystal clear thought in order to discover our passions and take up something that I enjoy." Parikshit's story is one of the many success stories that WeSchool has produced. This is a result of the constant vigilance the management and the faculty of the institute.
"Having realized the need to reinvent management education by offering academic programs that were impactful to students and would put them on a solid footing in the corporate world, WeSchool started innovative courses that place them on a higher platform than their competition," says Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool. The institute houses some of the most competitive faulty in the country. Coupled with its industry affiliations and 1,70,000 sq.ft institute building space, students of Welingkar are exposed to world class facilities and professionals.
Turning the Entire Globe into a Learning Space
In today's world, management studies are no longer country specific. In order to be able to compete at the workplace, MBA graduates need to traverse the global workspace. WeSchool offers this opportunity to its students. "Students at Welingkar, have gained valuable experience interacting with corporates and faculty abroad besides getting exposure to international management practices and global trends," says Salunkhe. This year 107 students from Welingkar successfully completed their Global Internships in Germany, Japan, Dubai, Kenya, Ghana, and Tanzania.
The institute has key alliances with institutes all over the world, Unitec Institute of Technology, New Zealand, Curtin Business School, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia, LUMS, Lancaster University, UK, Otto Fredrich Universitat, Germany, Audencia Nantes, France, Jonkoping International Business School, Sweden and many more. This enables the institute and its students to understand key nuances that interlink management theories and practices as followed in different parts of the world. The institute also has regular visiting international faculty from some of the most prestigious institutes in the management world such as Stanford and Nanyang University as well as corporate strategists from Microsoft and IDEO. The institute does not base its repute in its visiting faculty alone; its in-house faculty in itself is a laudable bunch led by Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, who is a visiting fellow at Harvard Business School aside from being a full time Director.
Laying Emphasis on Matters of Importance
In a recent study conducted by Aspiring Minds on 32,000 MBA graduates, the talent management firm found that less than half of the students tested had some knowledge of key industry terms and concepts in their areas of specialty. For instance, a third of the surveyed students who had majored in finance, did not know what IPO � short for initial public offering � stood for. Despite all the exhaustive lessons and case studies that the students are made to review in most business schools, most of them are unable to carry out the simplest of tasks.
The institute continues its vigilance in its attempt to kill complacency. WeSchool and Center For Creative Leadership (CCL) have joined hands in a unique initiative 'Leadership beyond Boundaries'; an effort to advance leadership development in the world. Here, Executive education enters a new realm as MBA students design prototypes that can be scaled up and taken to the next level not just to start entrepreneurial ventures but to find real-time solutions to societal problems.
WeSchool believes that students learn more effectively through hands-on experience and exposure. "Learning from the outbound /experiential programs is incorporated in all our academic programs and it does wonders to students in boosting their confidence levels, teaches them to work through opposable minds, enhances risk taking abilities, and builds trust and team spirit," says Salunkhe. To support its out-of-the-box learning methodologies, the institute houses INNOWE-the innovation Lab, LRC - the Library housing more than 56,000 print books and 18000 E-Books, spread over three different spaces its own portal - infoWe, Welingkar Research Center, Growel, IT Lab, Gym with an artificial climbing wall, NIRVANA - Yoga room and SPACE BAR- a 'shop' where the students can have a firsthand experience of the retail world are some of the important features of Mumbai campus.
With these features as its framework, Welingkar has been exponentially strengthening its relationship with the student and corporate community. Every year, over 250 companies visit Welingkar to recruit its Management graduates. The last academic year saw over 18,000 students from all over India applying for an intake of 150 students. With its numerous initiatives, world class faculty and its institutional mantras, WeSchool has set the standard for the rest of the business schools in the country.
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