Offbeat management courses are gaining popularity among aspirants

Management courses are most sought after among aspirants, there are indications of trend change as offbeat management programmes are gaining popularity among business-school aspirants. For example, besides the regular management courses, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, offers post graduate programmes in human resource management (HRM) and international management (IM). Ashok Panjawani, dean (graduate programmes), MDI, said, this year the institute has enrol students in its 10th batch for the PGP-HRM course and eight batch of the PGP-IM course.

He further added, “Year-on-year, the course curriculum has evolved and become more relevant. Also, both these courses are establishing a distinct brand name for themselves, besides the established PGPM (postgraduate programme in management) course. In fact, during admissions, we are seeing more and more students opting for these courses as their first preference, which indicates a growing interest and good response from aspirants.”

He also give his views over the changing trends of market in last few years as market had been extensively competitive. There are large numbers of students who are in thirst of upgrading their technical skills and want to add more value to their resume for perspective employers.

The course structures of these courses are similar to those of PGDM programmes. Besides, in some cases, their fee structure could be 10-15 per cent lower comparative to regular courses. Certificate courses at the postgraduate management courses are also becoming popular. Xavier Labour Relation Institute (XLRI), said through the years, offbeat certificate programmes had been encouraging. XLRI offers a postgraduate programme for certificate in entrepreneurship (PGP-CEM), a six month residential programme.

It also offers PGP certificate in agri-business management, a six month on-line self-learning programme which has an objective to improve the agricultural business skills and knowledge.