Programs in Business Education are being delivered across Institutes of Management in a prescribed fashion that does not satisfactorily address the perspectives of the corporate in general and the student in particular. At a workshop on Leadership & Strategic Goals held at AIMS Institutes it was decided to revisit the conduct of our courses and transform them from curriculum centric to student centric.
At AIMS Institutes, we believe in enabling an atmosphere for students to develop professional skills along with academic excellence as a part of our vision to transform youth into professionals of global excellence. Given that the fundamental idea of management education is to impart functional skills to students, AIMS Institutes has introduced an outcome based teaching and learning process focused on competency building and professional skill enhancement.
Our Unique initiative Outcome Based Competency and Professional Skill Enhancement (CPSE) has been executed by establishing
1. CDRC (Curriculum Development and Review Committee) and Focus Centers
2. Categorization of students
3. Identifying, Designing, developing and executing training, augmentation and certification courses
4. Strengthening the outcome assessment for the curriculum and programme executed
5. Measurement of the outcomes
The pedagogy and process prepares AIMERS to face challenges of outside world as a true professional. Faculty at AIMS is dedicated to goals of imparting value based education to students and continuously updates the intended student learning outcomes for their courses. They identify Skill gaps and Knowledge gaps based on the inputs from stakeholders including Industry, Academia, Government and Society and develop pedagogy to bridge the gaps. The student learning outcomes and assessments planned by faculty are audited by a Curriculum Development and Review Committee (CDRC) .It is a major activity undertaken at AIMS institutes to achieve the vision.
Focused Learning Outcomes
We identify three critical competencies that need to be addressed amongst MBA students. They are Academic, Technical and employability related competencies. Institute has introduced outcomes based learning for all its curricular and co-curricular activities. This is done to ensure that students will be able to:
• Demonstrate professional skills and competence
• Exhibit leadership
• Appreciate teamwork
• Demonstrate ethical behavior
• Be sensitive to societal needs
• Contemplate entrepreneurship
As we found that employers like to recruit graduates who have gone the ‘extra mile’, 'joined in', can work both individually and in a team, shown a capacity for leadership, and demonstrated a willingness to take risks, and experiencing new situations and cultures. The success of individuals in a knowledge-based economy will increasingly depend upon skills, creativity and imagination. While basic literacy, numeracy, technical skills craft skills remain vital, today’s economy and society increasingly demands people with an ability to cope with change and adapt quickly to new environments and people. This is why employability skills are more and more important
Keeping in mind the above, we have also come up with an Integrated Approach aimed at improving the domain knowledge and employability skills through Domain specific Training and Competency based Value Added and Certification Programs. This initiative has been designed, developed and executed to take care of identified requirements:
The objectives of implementing these initiatives are as follows
• Assessment and identification of what is expected of the students by the potential employment provider(s).
• Designing and developing course curriculum to meet the expectations. There could be three kinds of courses in a program. One, courses which would pave the way for personality development (soft-skill development). Two, courses which would provide domain knowledge and skills. Three, courses which would facilitate setting up of enterprise(s). If there is any shortfall in three components of courses, the institute has to augment the curriculum through value added programs. The continuous updating of curriculum could be done by addressing knowledge gaps and skill gaps.
• A Training Need Assessment is done to figure out the skills required by MBA Graduates. We listed out the specific competencies required and tried building it up through designing various Training programs, Augmentation and certification programmes.
• Various assessment tools to measure the outcomes based on the identified skills and knowledge gaps have been a major focus of CDRC and for the achievement of the above, focus centers have been strengthened and structured as per the requirements. Focus centers are made more structured and responsible by making them come up with Signature Events/Certification Programmes, seminars and conferences. The focus centers and the rationale behind them are:
To implement this approach, AIMS has set up focus centers like AIMS ENTREPRENEURSHIP EXCELLENCE CENTRE (AEEC),AIMS CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL LIAISON (ACIL), AIMS CENTRE FOR RESEARCH (ACR) , AIMS CENTRE FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE (ACCS),AIMS CENTRE FOR CONSULTING (ACC),AIMS CENTRE FOR STUDENT DEVELOPMENT (ACSD), AIMS CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABILITY (ACS) headed by professional and academic experts in that field. The focus centresconduct activities that enable students to actively participateand get hands on training.
Focus centers have been identified in line with the Vision of the organization and need of the industry. Therefore, it aims not only in transforming youths into globally competent quality professionals but, also as an individual having a deep concern for society.
Apart from training the students to face the challenges of VUCA, our Innovative Teaching Methodologies used in Classrooms help the students to develop the skills needed to face any contingencies.
* Achievements
We have seen an excellent results as students performed incredibly well in the two years after introducing the change
• Placements have grown from 80% in 2015-17 to 88% in 2016-18.
• Entrepreneurship grew by 2% over last year
• Academic results show that we have more ranks, distinctions and first classes in 2018 compared to previous years
By
Dr Kiran G Reddy
Founder, AIMS Institutes, Bangalore.
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