Two-year Asian management module for Indian students

NEW DELHI - Pearson Learning Solutions, the specialised education wing of global publishing and education giant Pearson Education, has tied up with the Bharti group’s Centum Learning to develop a two-year postgraduate management module for Indian students with a focus on Asian markets, it was announced here.

The curriculum, to be designed by Pearson Learning Solutions, will provide industry-related education experience in management to match global standards.

“It will be launched by year-end in five Centum campuses in Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Mohali with 60 students in each centre,” chief executive officer of Centum Learning Sanjeev Duggal said, announcing the partnership in the capital Monday.

The programme will offer students a choice of seven specialisations in marketing management, human resource management, financial management, international management, information technology management, operations management and entrepreneurial management, Duggal said.

Centum Learning, a Bharti Associate company, provides learning and skill-building solutions that impact business performance through enhanced employee productivity, customer profitability and effective talent transformation.

It figures on the “Top 16 Training Outsourcing Watchlist 2010″ and “Top 15 Emerging Leaders in Training Outsourcing 2009 Worldwide”.

Pearson Education, which is designing the module, has catered to the needs of nearly 100 million people worldwide through integrated education-publishing.

It is spread across a wide spectrum of subjects, including business, technology, sciences, law, humanities, books and resources to help students to learn, teachers to teach, and professionals to evolve throughout their careers.

Duggal said: “Pearson is working with a team of 37,000 content researchers and education planners in more than 60 countries.”

“It will help us create a cutting-edge curriculum for our students so that they are equipped to match the pace of growing global economies. In Pearson, we have found a strategic partner who shares our vision to provide holistic education and professional skills to students,” he said.

“The module will be developed through an extensive review and analysis by a team of leading national and international experts, editors and instruction designers,” Duggal said.

“We have kept in mind the future movements of the markets in Asia, the continent’s demographic advantage and the increased economic activity while developing the programme,” Duggal told IANS.

“The module also incorporates as backdrop curriculum the cultures, languages (like Japanese and Mandarin) and geopolitics of Asia to train a breed of managers who will be armed with skill sets to operate in any Asian market and culture,” he added.

“While 80 per cent of the content will be global, 20 per cent of it will focus specifically on Asia,” he said.

Commenting on the differences in the nature of managerial needs in Asia and the west, Vivek Govil, chief executive officer of Pearson Education, said: “The focus should be on growth-oriented management, innovations and entrepreneurship.”

“In the western countries, the management focus is more on structuring and maintenance of big firms. Asia is a bigger part of the world economy,” he said.

Govil said his company’s “recent focus in India has been on engaging with customers by offering a blend of products and services under the company’s nascent Pearson Learning Solutions umbrella”.

“The partnership with Centum is the precursor of more such initiatives in India,” he added.

Delving into the inherent dichotomy of business curriculums in the country, Duggal said: “India is a paradox in management education. We have a large supply (in the number of institutions) but very poor quality of management education.”

“Indian management schools must develop managers who are confident and comfortable, who understand modern Asian markets because the biggest global companies are coming out of Asia and tailor a deeply industry-centred MBA programme that should teach students to work in unpredictable business situations,” he said.