Faculty Exchange Offers Exchange of Knowledge & Promotes Cross-cultural Competence of Students, Says JIMS Kalkaji Prof

In a conversation with Shiksha, Dr Nupur Rao, Professor, JIMS Kalkaji, shares the top three initiatives that have helped the institute make them industry-ready, including tie-ups with international universities and large corporates. She also shares in detail how PGDM (Industry Integrated) with Grant Thornton Bharat and PGDM International Business are their prominent courses.

Dr Rao is an Electronics and Instrumentation Engineer from SGSITS, Indore. She did her MBA from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore specialising in Finance, followed by PhD in Management from Barkatullah University, Bhopal. She has been working as an academician for the past two decades in various universities. She has many publications of national and international fame to her credit and was awarded Best Research Paper Presentation Award in the National Conference “Sagar Manthan 2019” organised by SGI MBA Department, Bhopal.

Q1. What are the three things that your institute is doing that will enable it to differentiate itself from the competition?

A. JIM Kalkaji has been imparting high-quality professional education since 1993. It has over a period of time developed into a reputed centre of excellence for the conduct of research and consultancy services.

• The institute has been awarded the ISO 9001:2015 International Quality Certification in 2003 which speaks volumes about the quality of education imparted.
• The sustained focus on improving the quality of academic deliverables has resulted in the award of the prestigious South Asian Quality Assurance System (SAQS) and National Board Accreditation (NBA) which is a great feat in itself.
• JIMS Kalkaji has collaborated with Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) for strategic associations which is a very reputed college on the north campus.

Q2. What are the top three initiatives that the institute takes to make students industry-ready?

A. Recently JIMS has collaborated with Grant Thornton Bharat to offer one of its kind Industry Integrated PGDM programme with assured placement. GT Bharat will be involved right from the student selection phase to the placement of the student, hand-holding him/her at every step. We also have an alliance with NSE, and our students are getting NCFM certification which is a feather to the cap. Students are getting a golden opportunity to do IBM certification and to encourage students to do MOOC courses, we have a credit transfer points system in place.

Our students for their comprehensive learning experience and international exposure visit foreign universities such as Nanyang Technological University- Singapore, MDIS-Singapore, United Arab Emirates University, and Dubai just to name a few for Global Immersion Programme.

We have MOUs with international universities; Cologne Germany, Westminster, and the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, to name a few, for Student and Faculty exchange which provides an exchange of knowledge and strengthens the cross-cultural competence of our students. Guest lecture series is organised periodically where renowned national and international speakers from all over the world share their knowledge coming out from enriched experiences and guide us. The exercise helps them know the best practices across the world.

Q3. What are the key attributes that a student should have in order to:

A. Qualify for your institution

Candidates are short-listed on the basis of the management entrance exam scores. Apart from their scores we look for prior academic excellence, work experience etc. The selected students are then called for a written ability test/Extempore, Group discussion and personal interview. In this round of selection, the institute looks for communication skills, general awareness, Extra-curricular interests, discipline, ambition and motivation in them.

Get top grades in your institution

At JIMS, we believe in the holistic development of students wherein students get real-time learning exposure with a blended approach of classroom learning, gaining competence by working on excel and being assessed based on their competence with application-based solutions. They learn management concepts with a focus on personality development, soft skills, communication skills, entrepreneurship skill development, analytics and research attitude. Students imbibe leadership, team building, conflict resolution, CSR, marketing and entrepreneurship by participating in various club activities., and mastering problem-based solution approach with open house discussion on contemporary topics, case study discussion and competitions.

Since the PGDM General and PGDM IB programs are fast-track management programs, the student undergoes rigorous training throughout the program. We have the most experienced and seasoned faculties who groom our students to be industry ready. To score good marks, students should sincerely attend all lectures and complete all assignments, projects and presentations on time. She needs to participate in all activities organised under the various clubs namely Finance, marketing, HR, Analytics, Literary, NSS, Entrepreneur Club, cultural club, and alumni club.

Q4. Which programme/s would you say is/are your best? What is it that helps your institution differentiate itself for this programme?

A. We at JIMS Kalkaji, run PGDM (Industry Integrated) with Grant Thornton Bharat and PGDM International Business programs. Both programs cater to different types of needs of the industry, hence for us, both are the best.

In PGDM (Industry Integrated) with Grant Thornton Bharat programme, the students work on real-life assignments. They are made to work on industry and simulation projects and present them to Grant Thornton Bharat experts. The students learn hands-on from Grant Thornton Bharat's seasoned practitioners, through real-world cases and assignments delivered by them with decades of experience. The students also get access to Mentoring and guaranteed placements with one-on-one mentoring from Grant Thornton Bharat experts. The top 50% of Students of the batch are guaranteed placement with Grant Thornton Bharat at an annual package of INR 11.5 LPA.

PGDM International Business program offers an industry interface in which students shall work on international projects with the best corporates. The programme extends Global Immersion Programme with world-class universities. An annual international conference is organised exclusively for the IB students in which experts from various parts of the Globe act as think tanks for building the intellectual capital of the students.

Q5. What are you doing to improve/drive better campus placements for your current students and alumni? What kind of jobs routinely come to campus? What would you say are the key recruitment trends for your college (observed over the past five years)?

A. We at JIMS Kalkaji run a mentorship program for our current students in which the faculties give students individual guidance. They cover every aspect of the student’s personality and give customised counselling to them. The mentors help them to formulate their goals as per their aspirations and interest which is further broken down into short-term goals as per their skill inventory. The students get a clear picture of the path they have to follow to achieve their goals. Students then identify the field they want to specialise in and their dream companies. In order to prepare them for the placements, the institute organises mock Group Discussions and Personal Interview sessions for the students. We even call the corporates for specialization-specific sessions. The alumni of our college give their valuable time and give company specific briefing sessions to the aspiring students. Aptitude training is given to students by in-house faculty and aptitude tests are organised by First Naukri & CoCubes.

We have a dedicated alumni portal in place. Our alumni play a major role in shaping the careers of our students. They share job descriptions of companies asking for work experience and give updates with reference to vacancies 

JIMS Kalkaji lived up to its glorious past and sailed through the difficult times of pandemic also with a very active placement cell constituted of active students and experienced faculties. The institute was witness to 200 job offers from around 90 companies. The kind of jobs which routinely come to our campus are from varied sectors namely consulting, BFSI, FMCG, IT, Retail, Manufacturing, Pharma, FMCD and Finance.

The key recruitment trends have been

• Virtual recruitment,
• Remote work,
• Hybrid working,
• Requirement through social media,
• Skill assessments,
• Working Flexibility and
• Constant upskilling and Training.