New curriculum to make B-students industry-ready

The National HRD Network is working in collaboration with a Bengaluru-based business school to design a new curriculum for management students. 

The NHRDN and the Institute of Finance and International Management (IFIM) are designing a curriculum for MBA students with a specific focus to cater to the industry needs. 

Dhananjay Singh, director general, NHRDN, said this was being done to help the industry and the academia. “There has been a constant feedback that students are not industry-ready. Students also feel there is a gap between their curriculum and industry needs. There was a need to bridge this gap and hence the idea,” he said. “We are looking at putting our energies together to have a futuristic curriculum.”

Singh said the NHRDN, which had members from as diverse backgrounds as public sector units, foreign and Indian MNCs, would seek their views while designing the curriculum. It will be later presented to the All India Council for Technical Education and the Ministry of Human Resource Development for implementation. 

Sanjay Padode, secretary of the Center for Developmental Education which runs the IFIM, said: “W will conduct a survey on the skills specifically needed in the 21st century. The reports will come by the end of August. In the next five months, workshops and roundtable discussions would be held around the same and the feedback of HR professionals would be sought about the curriculum. Changes would be made to the draft at this point, if need be.”  Quoting a Nasscom report, he said questions had been raised about the employability of students.