Education and careers magazine M NOW launched

To develop talent for India Inc, and provide a clear long-term education and careers roadmap to Indias youth, New Delhi-based media company Triumph Mediatech has launched its education and careers magazine M Now.

New Delhi, Jan 15 : To develop talent for India Inc, and provide a clear long-term education and careers roadmap to India's youth, New Delhi-based media company Triumph Mediatech has launched its education and careers magazine M Now.

The highlight of M Now is its 4-steps roadmap that promises to guide a graduate from the campus to corporate boardroom. Priced at Rs 195, M Now is a 200 page quarterly magazine, which is available on newsstands and bookstores.

Triumph Mediatech also publishes India's leading management portal MBAUniverse.com.

Rejecting the piecemeal thinking on professional education and careers, M Now is built around its well-researched 4-steps Roadmap. They are gain employability; get work experience; MBA, Your Passport; and be a business leader with executive education.

As the roadmap says, M Now recommends that graduates should first gain employability with skill courses, work for corporate sector and only then seek MBA qualification.

To arrive at the 4-steps Roadmap, M Now interviewed thought-leaders from institutions and companies like ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Manipal Education Group, TeamLease Service, IIMs, FMS-Delhi, MDI-Gurgaon, IIFT- New Delhi and Calcutta, NMIMS University, Mumbai, IMS Learnings, Career Launcher, MeritTrac and several others. These interviews are included in the launch issue of M Now.

M Now also conducted a survey of top 20 B-schools on 'Rising importance of work-experience in MBA education.' The survey sheds new light on changing face of management education in India.

According to the survey, realizing the importance of candidate's prior work experience before enrolling into a full time management education programme, leading Indian B-schools are spelling out preferences for candidates who have work experience prior to applying for MBA programme. While on average about 60 per cent of candidates in top 20 B-schools have workex, in some case as many as 75 per cent candidates have work ex.

The survey covers leading B-schools like IIMs, MDI, Gurgaon, IIFT, New Delhi and Calcutta, NMIMS University, Mumbai, XIM Bhubneshwar, International Management Institute, Delhi and others.

For instance, the survey reveals that at IIM-A, 58 percent of students admitted to class of 2008 had work experience. This figure rose to 60 % for class of 2009. At IIM-B, 69 percent students admitted into class of 2008 had work-experience. Similarly, at IIM-C, 67 percent students admitted into class of 2007 had work-experience.

Dr Sujit K Basu, Director, MDI said: "A candidate learns more when he / she interacts with people from varied backgrounds and thus a diverse MBA class is a perfect learning environment. For this reason, weightage is assigned for experience. Given the ease with which one qualifies the education loans as well as satisfactory placement scenario should motivate individuals with work experience to opt for a formal MBA qualification."

XIM-B admitted 72 per cent in 2006-08 batch, and 79 per cent admitted in 2007-09 batch. Responding to question that are students with relevant work experience better at learning from MBA programmes, Fr. Abraham, Director, XIMB, said, "Students with work experience have already experienced the dynamics of a workplace, needs and expectations of a business entity and the domain expertise required for succeeding in the corporate environment. This provides a strong platform for all the students with work experience to learn faster and better than fresher students."

Satwinder Singh, Director M Now Magazine, said, "Our research clearly spells out a new framework that India's youth should follow. Management aspirants are much better off if they acquire work experience before applying to top Indian B-schools. In fact, by 2010, we estimate that up to 75 per cent of total seats at top 25 B-schools will be reserved for applicants with work experience."

To help youth become employable, as Step 1 of the M Now Roadmap on 'Gain Employability', M Now has a special focus on job-oriented programs in sectors like Retail, Banking, Insurance, Telecom and IT, Media and Healthcare.

It lists over 200 sectoral programs, which can make unemployable graduates into productive resources for India Inc. Another highlight of M Now, as part of its Step 3 on 'MBA: Your passport' is India B-school Directory 2008, which features over selected 400 B-schools. The fourth Step 4 of the M Now Roadmap is on using 'Executive Education' for updating managerial thinking to emerge a business leader.

M Now magazine is supported by many leading organizations. Its partners include Business Daily Financial Express, NIIT IFBI, India's largest skills assessment company MeritTrac, Education conglomerate Career Launcher and India's leading management portal MBAUniverse.com.

ANI