And that's good news for management
poised to enter the industrial world. It must be said to the
credit of our current batch seeking placements that they did
not let the dismal scene of the previous year divert them
from their purpose.
They discerned correctly that
jobs may vanish temporarily, not careers, and have adopted
a healthy zero-based approach to their own placements. At
the same time they witnessed the meteoric rise in the industry
made by our very young alumni and so have not abandoned the
KIAMS tradition-in-the-making of preparing for long-term sustainability
rather than immediate flashes. In support of career-orientation,
this year we introduced the Balanced Grade Card (BGC) on a
pilot basis. The BGC is a holistic evaluation of the student,
which focuses not only on performance outcomes but also on
demonstrated effort and underlying competencies. By surfacing
the underpinnings of performance, the student is able to take
informed decisions for corrective actions towards specific
performance. The generic component of competencies and effort
propensities can also form a meaningful input for long-term
career decisions. In addition to aiding choices, the BGC also
prepares the student for the 3600 evaluations of industry.
Another move to strengthen our
curriculum delivery is the introduction of seminar credits.
Rapid changes in industry practices need to be addressed in
the curriculum without diluting the delivery of the core body
of management knowledge. Many management institutes accommodate
both requirements under one delivery, which leads to an unfocused
approach. Through seminar credits, we have introduced a parallel
stream for latest industrial practices to be delivered by
industry experts, leaving unscathed the delivery of core knowledge
by academia.
A number of initiatives in industry-institute
collaboration have been taken this year, notably the mentorship
programme, integrating summer guides in the assessment schemes
and industry-integration in the curriculum. The effect is
already evident in the quality of teaching learning on the
campus and the knowledge-skill-attitude offering the students
are making to industry. |