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From 1990s to mid-2000s in India, MBA degree was considered as a sure shot passport to success through bagging high packages. The high demand led to surge in mushrooming of MBA institutions which claimed to give the desired end results – a great package. This led to growth of lot many coaching institutions which would claim to help the aspirant to crack through one of the most coveted tests called CAT (Common Aptitude Test conducted by Indian Institute of Management- IIMs). Since CAT has been a tough to crack, the industry devised different entrance exams which were shades lower in toughness and rigour to tab the burgeoning market and hence that led to many national and state level entrance exams.

The many options of tests fuelled the supply and to cater and accommodate to the ever-increasing supply, more MBA institutions in India opened shops. Some of these institutions had a strong and stable vision and mission to contribute to the management education and have stood the test of the time till now, but when it comes to most of institutions, they have either been closed or have given a bad name to the MBA dream which was once the golden passport to the middle level positions in organisations. The market went to an extent that there were many such institutions opened leveraging the loopholes and without accreditation of the apex watch dog in the country that time, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), under the Department of Higher Education which is governed by Ministry of Education. With dilution of standards, the repercussion is bound to hit soon.

The key issue:

According to the latest India Skill Report, having an MBA degree is no more the sure shot passport to have jobs and with it the high packages. According to the report, MBA is still ranked as the second most employable course, but only less than half of students 46.59 % with an MBA degree are employable or are good to be hired. The report points out that the percentage was best in the year 2020 at 54%, but it is way too far less.

Several experts and educationists point out the mushrooming of MBA courses and colleges for the decline in the in quality of students who are now aspiring for the same and thereby, leading to drop in employability. Most of them recommend an overall overhaul of the curriculum as a solution. Some say that MBAs degree is on decline because alumni networks are built on the brand of the institution. If there is not enough pull in terms of notable alumni, the college would not attract diligent students. If there are not diligent students’ institution, then the most critical part of the MBA experience is lost. The issue is how to have the so called “good” students? Is there an elixir to create one? How do we define “good” student for management is a big debate and which is beyond the purview of what is being discussed here? But it raises a pertinent question as to how to provide an ecosystem which would help a student interested in management education to have the “right” and at the same time “employable skill set”?

Fixing the employability skills gap by having the right perspective

There is a strong need to revamp the curriculum in the management institutions. Apart from the basic management concepts, students must have an experience of putting those into practice in the entire course itself. The experiential learning has a by far more impact on reinforcing the learnings in the classroom to the real-life complex business settings. We need to also be mindful of the shifts that is happening in way of learning and aspirations of generations X, Y and Z to accommodate them.

According to Harvard Business Review article by Henrik Bresman and Vinika D. Rao - “Three of the most studied generations will converge on the workplace at the same time: Generation X, the age cohort born before the 1980s but after the Baby Boomers; Generation Y, or Millennials, typically thought of as those born between 1984 and 1996; and Generation Z, those born after 1997, who are next to enter the workforce.” The three generations would have different aspirations in terms of aspirations – both leadership and entrepreneurial, their learning and training preferences and their general aspirations towards life. As a management institution, we need to be very mindful of this shift and bring swift changes in the teaching pedagogy to contain the shift in aspirations and preferences.

Curriculum agility is the key

In this ever-dynamic world of management, it is time for the management institutions to be agile towards the learning needs of students and the employability skills requirement at the organisations. We should regularly assume small experiments to accommodate these two requirements at the supply and the demand side and have made effort to strike a balance and fix the gap at both the ends. By incorporating more of experiential learning through live projects with corporates and giving chance to each student to experience complex real life situations demanding decision making and nurturing their entrepreneurship and creativity to think beyond which is evident will go in long run in helping us in bridging the gap and trying to fix the employability skills gap.

Value Added Courses

With Curriculum agility, there needs to be the openness towards adding small term value added courses which certifies students on the skill set. We have several great service providers who have provide short term courses which ends up in certifications. As a management institution, we would have a profound knowledge resource in form of Faculty and Staff, but management institutes need to have openness towards incorporating value added courses by experts in the field which helps the students to have exposure to learn from experts in the niche areas.

Quality management education which is relevant and focuses on future skills would always be in demand. The management institutions are a strong bridge between the demand and supply of highly skilled and polished future management professionals who aspire to be the part of the corporate bandwagon. The management institutions can thrive ever if they are mindful about the needs at both demand and supply and are agile enough to fine tune themselves in terms of teaching pedagogy.

 

 

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