A virtual business lab in Rajasthan was inaugurated on Thursday at JK Lakshmipat University in association with All India Management Association (AIMA) for management students to stimulate business exercises. The BizLab will expose students to real economic, environmental and business issues related to finance, operations, marketing and other business functions with the support of AIMA. It has been set up to allow learners to find solutions to problems in almost real-life situations, which will, in turn, aid their learning process, enhance skills as managers and provide them with the required industry exposure.
JKLU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Asheesh Gupta said during the virtual inauguration, "For us, the establishment of the AIMA BizLab at JKLU, the first in Rajasthan, marks a very purposeful milestone. There is conclusive scientific evidence that we learn best by doing. Management education requires being able to integrate principles and theories with business realities allowing learners to practice these in near-real-life situations - learning that cuts through functional silos – exactly as problems rarely come packaged as purely marketing or organisational or finance problems. The purpose of this, beyond imparting domain knowledge, is to help students learn how to integrate and use the knowledge that is available and to be life-long learners. The AIMA BizLab is a strategic step in this direction because AIMA also brings the advantage of being industry and market backed and understands the management students’ capabilities."
Reiterating the importance of lifelong learning, Neeraj Kapoor, Director, Centre of Management Development, AIMA, said students should be prepared for crisis management at all times. "An unprecedented situation like the COVID-19 pandemic can bring us on our knees at any point in our lives, and so students should learn to accept challenges and learn to deal with them," he added. He also spoke about the four pillars of education — using technology to our advantage, upskilling, having an entrepreneur mindset and lifelong learning — that is going to redefine management education in the near future. "Technology is a great instrument to augment learning, however, online learning might not ever replace physical classrooms. This near-real experience is a tool to make a student's life easier," he concluded.
