Sectorial specialisation: Enhancing the employability factor of an MBA graduate

“The question is how can the programs and courses offered, pedagogy adopted and exposure to experiential learning tools need to be designed so that it contributes to Corporate’s Expectation out of management graduates”

Management programs offered should provide an opportunity to students to choose the courses which facilitate their multifaceted learning to augment employment opportunities. Managerial portfolios/roles demands that prospective candidates should have ability to function in an environment where frequent interaction with different departments is the order of day. Management Institutions need to own the responsibility of grooming students to have exposure in various functions of an organization. Programs offered by the business schools and courses designed should focus on students gaining knowledge and skills in more than one functional area. For instance, in an organization be it a manufacturing or service industry, a decision like providing credit to customers’ demands knowledge of both finance and marketing areas as it has implications on both the departments.

Institutions offering management education should understand industry practices, trends, knowledge and skills required to factor these aspects while designing programs so that the students passing out from institutions will be able to deliver and live up to industry expectations. Students pursuing management programs must understand the interrelationships and interlinked nature of functions that are performed at organizations. Hence, students while choosing their specializations or courses need to understand the corporate practices and expectations so that the assigned activities at organizations can be performed with ease and could overcome challenges.

Out of box thinking or lateral thinking has been considered as one of the most important skills that the management graduates are expected to possess. Problem solving and decision making demands lateral thinking as well as knowledge on more than one functional area. Management education is  providing  a great learning experience by offering range of  courses where in Students are allowed  to choose based on their interest and career plan. Hence, Business schools should provide an opportunity to students to choose wide range of courses to have broad based knowledge and skills.

 Management graduates who are exposed to varied specializations will certainly have broader exposure and knowledge in their specializations augmenting their employment opportunities which will facilitate higher productivity at respective workplace.

Siva Sivani Institute of Management (SSIM), Hyderabad; the first AICTE approved private B – School in Hyderabad imparting quality management education since 1992 was again one of the pioneers to visualize this need of the hour by virtue of having highly experienced faculty members with rich industry and academic backgrounds.

SSIM Hyderabad re positioned its flagship PGDM Program as PGDM – Triple Specialization and started offering sectorial specialization along with major and minor specializations. Over the years, The PGDM  - Triple Specialization program at Siva Sivani Institute of Management (SSIM), Hyderabad is uniquely designed to suit the requirements of the industry looking for managers with cross functional skills blended with IT acumen focussing on the below outcomes –

Management Graduates will:

• Continuously learn and adapt to a dynamic environment, exhibit analytical skills and effective decision making
• Demonstrate critical thinking, creativity and innovation to emerge as business leaders and entrepreneurs.
• Collaborate, network and act as a catalyst of change for business and society
• Champion social values and ethical behaviour in pursuit of sustainable development

During the second year, students get to customize their curriculum by choosing 10 electives across different areas apart from compulsory courses.

Students are offered Major and Minor specialization in the areas of Marketing, Finance, Human Resource, Operations, Information Technology and Business Analytics.

As part of the new initiative, students are offered Sectorial Specialization in the below mentioned areas –

• Banking Management
• Digital Marketing
• Retail Management
• Business Analytics
• Entrepreneurship

As part of the experiential learning exposure, Siva Sivani Institute of Management (SSIM), Hyderabad has started offering “SKILL BASED LEARNING” through the following avenues –

• Real – time Cases
• NSE Assisted Finance Lab
• Business Simulations
• LIVE Projects

Sectorial Specialization and Skill Based Learning had a huge impact on the transition of the recent management graduates from the institute resulting in 96.5% placements for the last 4 consecutive years. There has been a drastic change in the roles offered by corporates to SSIM graduates and they been given portfolios in the area of Data Researcher with S&P Global, Analyst – Risk and Brand Protection with Deloitte, Associate Analyst – Global Production Operations with BERKADIA, Platform Advisory Associate - Supply Chain Management with Accenture to name a few.

Note: The views expressed in this article are that of SSIM - Siva Sivani Institute of Management and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha