With time on their hands, execs go back to school
IIM-A, like many of its peers, has allowed selected candidates to postpone their joining dates for its executive management programme by up to a year.
By Kumar Anand, ET Bureau |
AHMEDABAD: Rohit Raghav, in his mid-30s, says it���s time he returned to the classroom. Employed with a multinational company at Faridabad near New Delhi, Raghav had been waiting and saving up for this moment. He was selected for the executive management programme (PGPX) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), in 2007, but had deferred it by a year.
But now with the slowdown taking the sting out of the market, Raghav thinks there couldn���t have been a better time to return to school. ���When I graduate in 2010, I will get an opportunity to work for an industry that would be on the growth path,��� says Raghav, who has worked for seven years abroad, including the US and China.
IIM-A, like many of its peers, has allowed selected candidates to postpone their joining dates for its executive management programme by up to a year. But with the economic slowdown biting and career prospects hazy, institutes say requests from candidates to avail of this facility have come down sharply. At IIM-A, for instance, the number of candidates seeking to postpone their joining dates for executive management programmes fell to eight this year compared with 20 last year.
And applications from mid-career professionals seeking to return to school have gone up considerably. ���This is the time for mid-career executives to get back to the campus, so that they can join back the corporate world with more value additions,��� says Arvind Sahay, chairman of IIM-A���s PGPX programme. The institute recently completed admission process for the fourth batch.
The situation at IIM-A is mirrored at several top management schools across the country, most of which are reporting a 15-20% increase in applications for executive management programmes. ���I had applied for the course, got selected, but was not sure of joining it.
However, given the current economic scenario, I think the time is right to get a degree and enhance my career prospects,��� says Anindita Roy, who worked for IBM as an IT consultant. She plans to join IIM Calcutta���s one-year executive programme in April.
Says Malay Bhattacharyya, course chairman of IIM Bangalore���s executive MBA programme: ���Executives are finding it an opportunity to take a break from work and get back to school.��� The Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, which is in the process of finalising the admission process for a new batch of its flagship one-year executive MBA, has seen a 20-25% surge in the number of applications for the course.
���This is a huge jump, and the main reason is the new-found interest among executives to join a one-year course during recession,��� ISB admissions director VK Menon told ET.
Experts feel the MBA programme, or for that matter any academic programme, can be a good investment in a bad economy. ���The economy is also expected to turn around during the time-frame of the programme,��� says Guruprasad Sarvothaman, a US-based management education consultant, adding that the ���opportunity cost��� of leaving work to go into education was ���lower than normal��� now.
But now with the slowdown taking the sting out of the market, Raghav thinks there couldn���t have been a better time to return to school. ���When I graduate in 2010, I will get an opportunity to work for an industry that would be on the growth path,��� says Raghav, who has worked for seven years abroad, including the US and China.
IIM-A, like many of its peers, has allowed selected candidates to postpone their joining dates for its executive management programme by up to a year. But with the economic slowdown biting and career prospects hazy, institutes say requests from candidates to avail of this facility have come down sharply. At IIM-A, for instance, the number of candidates seeking to postpone their joining dates for executive management programmes fell to eight this year compared with 20 last year.
And applications from mid-career professionals seeking to return to school have gone up considerably. ���This is the time for mid-career executives to get back to the campus, so that they can join back the corporate world with more value additions,��� says Arvind Sahay, chairman of IIM-A���s PGPX programme. The institute recently completed admission process for the fourth batch.
The situation at IIM-A is mirrored at several top management schools across the country, most of which are reporting a 15-20% increase in applications for executive management programmes. ���I had applied for the course, got selected, but was not sure of joining it.
However, given the current economic scenario, I think the time is right to get a degree and enhance my career prospects,��� says Anindita Roy, who worked for IBM as an IT consultant. She plans to join IIM Calcutta���s one-year executive programme in April.
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Says Malay Bhattacharyya, course chairman of IIM Bangalore���s executive MBA programme: ���Executives are finding it an opportunity to take a break from work and get back to school.��� The Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, which is in the process of finalising the admission process for a new batch of its flagship one-year executive MBA, has seen a 20-25% surge in the number of applications for the course.
���This is a huge jump, and the main reason is the new-found interest among executives to join a one-year course during recession,��� ISB admissions director VK Menon told ET.
Experts feel the MBA programme, or for that matter any academic programme, can be a good investment in a bad economy. ���The economy is also expected to turn around during the time-frame of the programme,��� says Guruprasad Sarvothaman, a US-based management education consultant, adding that the ���opportunity cost��� of leaving work to go into education was ���lower than normal��� now.
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