Management Education

Management Education There is no doubt that Management Education is desired by a variety of students from ordinary graduates to professional graduates such as Engineers, Law graduates and even Medical graduates. It has been accepted that training in management helps one rise in the organization to top levels faster. The income, power and status associated with top management jobs are attracting the best of brains to this career. Booming of the economy and chances of jobs abroad in management with management education has also helped make its demand grow. Another attraction is the relative ease of undergoing this course (this course is offered by almost all Universities, and several of their affiliated colleges) and its acceptance of graduate of any discipline as input resulting in it being a choice for almost any graduate.   Management degree programs are multidisciplinary in nature. The two-year MBA program is by far the most popular program among all management programs offered. The MBA program starts with a basic understanding of some foundation areas such as Accounting, Quantitative Techniques, Computers, Communication, Principles of Management and Economics. Then a couple of core/compulsory courses are given in the areas of Finance, Operations, Systems, Human Resource and Marketing.   There are electives that are offered in each of the areas of specialization. It is practice in management students to take electives in one or two areas of specialization. Electives are also provided with specific sectors in mind. Some of them are Insurance, Banking, Small business, Entrepreneurship, Hospital Management, Hospitality management, Retailing, Supply chain and Logistics, IT business, Tourism management, technology management and International business. There is also a trend to have management courses focused on any one of the above sectors.   There are Post Graduate management programs on Entrepreneurship, Hospital management, Supply chain management and logistics etc. These programs are usually called Masters in Entrepreneurship Management(MEM) , Masters in Supply Chain and Logistics management(MSCLM) etc. Such courses become necessary when a sector grows and management practice and research produces enough understanding and changes in that area to create need for a full-fledged course in that area. Such courses also have many core courses as in the MBA program and then go on to cover the courses in the sector concerned. Many such courses such as master of Human resource management, Master of International business etc, have become established.   For a student choosing a management course to study even today MBA is the first choice because of its long existence and universal acceptance. Students are reluctant to make a choice of getting in a narrower specialization by taking a masters program in a sectoral specialization. There are management programs that are offered through distance education. They do not produce as good a learning and training experience as the regular program. However there are regular programs with quality much lower than a good distance education program such as MBA from IGNOU. Distance programs are more suitable for working managers who have the knowledge and experience but do not have the formal qualification, which they would like to acquire the necessary qualification.   MBA program gains popularity because of the wide employment opportunity it offers. Thanks to the general boon in the economy the demand for management graduates exceeds supply. But, there is a note of caution here, quality of the management graduate available is also a very important concern. Because of the proliferation of this course, mainly due to the limited investment needed to start such courses, many institutes have mushroomed all over. This sudden expansion has led to lack of qualified and trained faculty especially at the middle and top levels. This and commercialization of education has created dent in quality of education provided.   Management graduates find employment mainly in the area of sales and marketing with both traditional sector companies as well as FMCG(Fast Moving Consumer Goods). They are also employed in service industry including insurance and banking. Since no other course produces inputs for sales job, most of the higher paid sales jobs are filled with management graduates. Some find jobs in operations in Banks/ Insurance sector. Many get employed in IT companies- in sales, business analysis or HR. Some even take a career in finance management. Human Resource management career is also the option for many specially lady students.. Of late the jobs in supply chain management and logistics sector has been increasing rapidly.   Types of Institutes The top management Institutes are the Indian Institutes of Management these institutes have very good infrastructure and faculty with fully residential program. Admissions are done after a highly competitive examination (Common Admission Test ,CAT), the best of the students aspiring for management education reach here. The institute and its facilities coupled with peer learning in such a group, produces the much sought after and often overvalued IIM management graduate. Most of the IIT's also have their own management schools but these have not yet made as much of a mark as the IIM.   There are many private national institutes (such as XLRI,XIM,Bajaj) and central University departments that run management programs. The strength of such departments is their tradition and good faculty. Physical facilities are usually not comparable to the IIM's. The competition is lesser here. University departments have lower fees whereas private institutes have high fees.. Some private institutes have uniforms and dress code too. The next layer of management schools are those run directly by the state Universities. These are constrained by the University setup and function as another of the many departments of the University most of the time. Their strengths again are the rich tradition they have and also the good faculty in the system. Infrastructure and money are their weaknesses. These schools also attract a good number of students.   There is then the youngest among the group, the new management institutes in private or self-financing sector. There are good institutes here and there is very poor quality ones. One should examine the institute and the course it offers before commiting oneself to it. Because one thing is guaranteed the experience is going to be expensive.   This is the time for management education to boom and grow in India, MBA program will remain the most popular program for a long time to come. Since different quality MBA programs come in many forms from many sources at different price the prospective student is advised to exercise informed discretion when choosing the institute and the management course it offers.

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