Group of IIM Alumni Launch Elements Akademia; Flagship Programme to Focus on Making Graduates Employable

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

-- Institute to impart vocational training to graduates

-- Training includes developing the Finer Elements required for a successful career

-- Plans to launch in 15-20 cities by 2010.

-- Leverages the professional knowledge & expertise of IIM Alumni across the globe

A group of dynamic IIM Alumni today launched Elements Akademia, a first-of-its-kind academic institute aimed at bridging the gap between academic theory and industry requirements.

Conceptualized, funded and operated by a group of 10 IIM Alumni, Elements Akademia will leverage the vast professional knowledge and expertise of the promoter group which consists of highly-placed professionals from across the globe.

The Flagship programme, aimed at graduates in 15 Tier II cities, is a six-month comprehensive part-time course encompassing Business communication, Managerial effectiveness, Basic IT and other Specialized Domain knowledge in areas of Insurance, Inventory Management, Accounting, Payables etc. On successful completion of the course, the students will receive certificates endorsed by K J Somaiya Business School (India's Top 20 MBA programme).

Genpact is the Lead Corporate Partner, and has assisted in course design/delivery and screening criteria - that drastically increases the hiring chance of the students.

Elements Akademia has also been granted a NASSCOM - Associate Member status. Elements has also applied for an ISO 9001:2000 certificate.

Prof. Tapan Bagchi, has been appointed as the Honorary Dean. Prof. Bagchi brings with him four decades of experience which spans 16 years in Exxon Mobil US, as well as founding Chair of IIT Kanpur's B-school, which he set up in 1983. He also headed NITIE as Director and finally helped setup SP Jain Dubai B-school as Dean. He has authored 6 test books and 75 papers.

Speaking on the launch of the institute, Mr. Nishant Saxena, CEO Elements Akademia said, "Despite being one of the fastest growing economies with 8%+ GDP growth, unemployment has still hovered around 7-8% for the last decade. Irony is that, on the one hand, companies do want to hire and, on the other hand, there is also enough graduate talent, but sadly there is a mismatch between actual industry skill requirements and what is taught in our universities. Our Flagship programme aims to bridge this gap and make our youth employable."

To the students, Elements offer an industry relevant course designed to get a job. Elements has done extensive research with multiple companies to understand what they are actually looking for in a candidate and then worked with their HR and Academic Advisors to design this course. The course/exam is exactly in line with the entrance recruitment process of the companies, which means that success in exam should also mean success in actual recruitment.

To the employers, Elements offers a customized Pre-hire training school: Elements invests in marketing to attract students who are then selected to the course based on prescreening specs laid down by the corporate partner. Students then pay and get trained on curriculum designed with the partner. Finally the partner comes for campus recruitment and hires only those who meet the usual hurdle rate.

There are 9 other Senior IIM Alumni as Lead Promoters/Investors, each typically having 10-20 years of corporate experience, and working across the globe. They are contributing through their expertise/networks.

The Lucknow city launch entails a 1 crore investment, and Elements plans to have 15 more institutes across India in coming 2-3 years. Courses in Retail and Insurance are also in the pipeline. The vision of Elements is to be the leader in high quality job oriented courses in India and other developing countries.

For the launch, Elements worked closely with all the leading colleges (BA/BCom/BSc) of Lucknow to understand student requirements and organize focused career counseling.

The launch event at Hotel Taj was well attend by important personalities like Mr. Satish Chandra Mishra, UP State cabinet minister, Ms. Sandhya Chintala, NASSCOM Director - Education Initiatives, Mr. Niranjan Deodhar, VP and India Hiring Leader, Genpact and Prof. Narasimhan, Director-General KJ Somaiya Bschool. Prof. Vipul, Dean IIM Lucknow, lauded the efforts of IIM Alumni and highlighted the new trends in entrepreneurship towards corporate social responsibility.

About the Promoters:

Nishant Saxena, an IIM alumnus, has extensive Pan-Asian (Japan, Philippines, India, Singapore) experience in one of World's Top 3 Most Admired companies. He has been profiled by Business World as a "Leader-in-Making" and is a visiting faculty in IIMs, NUS, SP Jain etc. Nishant is returning to India as the CEO of Elements Akademia.

Prof. Tapan Bagchi, a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur and PhD from Canada, will be the Honorary Dean.

Other Investors include:

-- Rusi Brij, Global CEO and Vice Chairman, Hexaware. Brij will act as a mentor and help in building corporate relations.

-- Arun Khanna, IIMA 1987, setup P&G's Manila BPO and now President of a Fortune 1000 company in Indonesia.

-- Alok Sharma, IIMA 1990, was the President of IIMA ASEAN Alumni Association and Heads Forex in a leading American bank.

-- Amit Banati, IIML 1990, was Finance Director, P&G and now Asia CFO of a Fortune 500 company.

-- Vinay Sharma, IIMC 1996, heads marketing in one of the top telecom company. He is designing the marketing strategy for Elements.

-- Ashwini Sharma, IIML 2000, a 6σ Black belt, is a VP in a Top European Bank. He is designing the growth strategy for Elements.

-- R Balachandar, IIML 2000, a VP with a Top US investment bank, is designing the capital structure and compensation model.

-- Gangadhar Sulkunte, IIML 2000, works in a top IT company in US, and is designing the end-to-end IT strategy.

-- Ankur Agrawal, IIML 2003, Head of Operations, has left a career in Banking and now focussing full time on Elements.

-- The Academic Advisory Board includes Padmashri Prof. Pritam Singh (former Director, IIML), Prof. Rajeev Srivastav (Former Dean, IIM Lucknow), Prof. Neerja Pandey (IIML, founder chairperson of communication group), and Prof. Archana Shukla (IIML, National HR expert).

About the Partners/Tieups:

-- The Academic Partner is KJ Somaiya Bschool (India's Top 20 MBA programme) and its name will be included in each student certificate. Their Director sits on the advisory board.

-- Genpact (ranked by Nasscom as India's #1 3rd party BPO for 2 consecutive years) is the Corporate Partner, and helps in course design/delivery and screening criteria - to drastically increase the hiring chances of the students. Upon successful placement, it also returns the course fee to the student.

-- Elements is also an Associate Member of Nasscom.

-- Talks are at an advanced stage with a Leading Retail and a Leading Insurance player.

About the name

Elements: The courses teach the Finer Elements required for a successful career.

Akademia: Akademia is the root of the word Academy and was the city where Plato held the first congregation of people.

To view the photograph, please click on the link given below:

From left to right Satish Chandra Mishra, Nishant Saxena and Niranjan Deodhar on the Launch Event

Source: Elements Akademia Pvt. Ltd. (Business Wire India)

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