Second-rung biz schools churning out ‘unemployable’ graduates?

NOIDA/NEW DELHI - Gaurav Kapoor completed his MBA from a Greater Noida institute, but the two year diploma couldn’t get him a job he wanted and he finally joined a BPO. He is among the thousands who are virtually “unemployable” as the second rung B-schools they studied in failed to impart the necessary soft skills.

A report from NASSCOM says only 10 percent of fresh graduates are actually employable. A similar survey of MBA and engineering graduates reveals only 25 percent of them are employable.

“Only one or two from my batch got placement as they had some good contacts. It is very frustrating,” Kapoor told IANS.

“I tried almost for a year initially rejecting the BPO offers. But it was difficult. What is the point of spending a fortune on a diploma which gets you no job. Fresh graduates are employed at the same level as I am,” Kapoor added.

According to Nishant Saxena, CEO, Elements Akademia, and guest faculty at the Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow (IIM-L), lack of soft skills and confidence affects the employability factor of students passing out of such B-schools.

“There are some basic elements which are found missing in these graduates, these include soft skills like attitude, business ethics, confidence, communication skills, general awareness, basic managerial skills, domain knowledge and work experience,” Saxena told IANS.

He attributes this to lack of exposure.

“Students of second rung B-schools lack confidence because they don’t have enough corporate interaction in terms of industry visits, internships and guest lectures,” Saxena said.

“Almost 70 percent of the faculty has zero industry experience. Even the IIMs are suffering from a faculty crunch. So it is but natural that the lower-rung B-schools find it tough to retain experienced faculty members.

‘Many B-schools invite guest lecturers to tide over the faculty crisis, which invites criticism from students,” he added.

According to Saxena: “There are over 1,000 business schools (B-schools) in the country and, barring the top 50 to 75, most have little to offer in terms of the skills needed to meet the demands of the market.”

“Students entering B-schools have high expectations of their first jobs. They don’t want to take up a sales job because they feel that with an MBA tag they should start in a high-paying corporate job.”

The experience of Shipra Sharma, who completed her B.Tech from a Ghaziabad college, is another example of a disappointed second rung B-school graduate. Sharma told IANS: “I completed my B.Tech but the offers that came my way were only for technical support. I have decided to go for an MBA but I don’t know if even that will get me a job.”

So, are these soft skills coachable? According to Saxena, only some are.

Exposure to the industry is the best way to impart these skills, he said.

“The challenge that most second rung colleges face is that the major chunk of students are freshers without any previous experience in any domain. Adding to this, average faculty of these colleges also has very limited quality industry experience,” said Saxena.

“The best practice may be to get a significant portion of training, at least 25 percent, to be delivered by actual industry experts,” he added.

(Anjali Ojha can be contacted at anjali.o@ians.in)