In a first-of-its-kind initiative for skill development among the youth, mobile operator Aircel has partnered with Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), the wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard University, to train undergraduate students on soft and managerial skills.
The company, through its in-house Aircel Academy, has launched Campus-to-Corporate programme with HBP, as a part of which 150 undergraduate students from colleges across various disciplines will undergo extensive training in three key areas ? managing self, people and business.
The campus-to-corporate programme comprises training on various business and organisational functions and processes through a six month web-based module which will be prepared and monitored every month by the faculty of Harvard.?
The curriculum will consist of modules on goal setting, stress and time management, writing skills, team management, leadership, virtual teams and performance measurement, among others spread across different sessions.
?We are not looking at engineering and management students but those pursuing BA and B Com who do not get the right training. The programme is stream neutral and we want to make these students confident and prepare them for the corporate world,? said Sandeep Gandhi, chief human resource officer at Aircel.
Aircel Academy had partnered with Duke University, Stanford College, IIM-Ahmedabad and XLRI for its training programmes in the past. The students enrolled in the programme without having to incur any training cost. The module will be offered at Aircel Acedmey?s set ups in various states.
In the first phase, students will be enrolled from Jaipur, Chennai, Pune, Shimla, Shillong, Guwahati, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Jammu and Srinagar followed by Delhi and Mumbai in the second phase. Besides, the programme will also offer one-month on-the-job training at Aircel. On its successful completion, the students will be awarded a joint certificate and the top performers will be offered employment at Aircel.
Though the telecom operator hires close to 1,000 people every year, Gandhi said the company does not plan to recruit students undergoing the campus-to-corporate programme soon.
