From training freshers in different organisations in 2005 to becoming a business school that caters to the needs of students as well as industries, the men behind GEMS B School have come a long way. In fact, this was the time when the founders realised that what the academia teaches is not in line with what the industry expects. Hence, they decided to mould this institution in a way where he made it a priority to provide industrial training alongside theoretical classes. Kunal Nehruji, Executive Director of GEMS also tells us about how they will soon be launching three new MBA course streams to meet the evolving needs of the industry.
Excerpts from the interview:
ASSOCHAM has recognised you as the most preferred B-school of the year in South India. How does that feel?
We feel very honoured to receive this prestigious award. More importantly, it was given by Suresh Prabhu who is the Central Minister for Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, and in the presence of Pranab Mukherjee, former President of India. People of this kind of stature associate themselves with this award. The key point is that the ASSOCHAM follows a very stringent process before they select the institutions or business schools for these awards. Among all the other awards we have received so far, this is a prestigious award for us.
What were the challenges that you as an academician had to face when you started this business school?
We believe that the subjects of management cannot be only learnt within four walls. They need to be learnt by working in the industry. Hence, we offer work-study programmes in MBA. All our courses are designed in a way that students learn 70 per cent of the subjects practically and 30 per cent theoretically. When we stepped out with this type of programme in the education stream, people were not ready to believe that this concept would work. My team and I visited several universities only to see that none of them was ready to offer a full-time degree course to study. Some of them stated that they can offer distance education in MBA degrees. Therefore we worked with an international university for five years. After a period of five years, Bharathiar University came forward and offered a full-time degree course for our students.
How do the students like this work format?
When a graduate joins our school, we provide a job placement in a company. While Monday to Friday, they work in the companies, Saturday and Sunday are meant for theoretical classes. At the end of two years, the students get an MBA degree along with two years of work experience. Similarly, the job that we find for them is related to the course they pursue. From the perspective of learning, they are able to understand the concepts effectively and in terms of adding value, the industry will look at them as students who already have two years of experience.
Tell us about your new courses
MBA in Start-up management is one of the new programmes for which we collaborated with the Startup Club India and designed it for aspiring students who want to build their own start-up. Another course that we want to launch is an MBA in Waste Management. We are in talks for an association with the Goa Waste Management Corporation for this course. There is an MBA in Facilities Management as well and all these courses which will be launched this year. At the undergraduate level, we have launched the BBA programme in Aviation, Hospitality, Event Managament Travel and Tourism, Healthcare and Hospital Administration.
How has the education stream evolved or changed over a period of time?
There was a huge gap between what the industry expected and what colleges used to teach students. I have seen this gap reducing as many universities and business schools are putting in a lot of effort to bridge this gap. It is the most significant change that I have observed.
