Now, golf, market courses in B-schools

B-schools are increasingly introducing niche educational courses to cater to developing industries.

For instance, the International School of Corporate Management (Iscom), Pune, has introduced a course in golf management. Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune has one in Turf Management, Focus Educare Business School in Bangalore has a post-graduate diploma certificate course in Stock Market with real time trading exposure, while the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MITs) office of Professional Education (MIT-PE) has collaborated with Lavasa to launch an executive programme in airport and airline systems.

“Science, commerce and arts are churning out scores of students each year and there is no lack of pros from these fields. But, there is definitely inadequacy of people who have the know how of the management side of golf for instance. It is a $2 billion booming industry in India and in demand in neighbouring countries too. And, with the Olympic Games in 2016, professionals equipped with the knowledge of Golf and the economics behind it will be in high demand,” Prof K Rae, director, Iscom told Business Standard.

This is a post-graduate programme in golf management spanning 2 years including a 6-month apprenticeship and on job training programme at one of the golf courses in Scotland which will be arranged by Elmwood College. First year will comprise of pure management subjects and the specialisation later on will be in Golf. ISCOM is also planning to start post-graduate courses in areas like Construction and Real Estate Management, Information Security Management, Air Transport Management and Air Security Management, Art Management, Museum Management and Sustainability Management.

Industries like real estate and fields like information security are critical to a developing country like India where there is no methodological looking after internal systems and so making available a ready talent pool is critical. The MIT-PE programme has been designed to cover issues concerning the Indian aviation sector, air traffic, growth of private sector airlines and airports and the approvals from government authorities. Mid 2009 saw a tie up of Liverpool FC and Abhijit Kadam Memorial Foundation to base a Football Development Centre at the Bharati Vidyapeeth University in Pune. The institute has a list of courses on offer for students in various areas of the game like coaching, sports turf technology, refereeing, football industry management and the like.

Fee structures for these courses range from Rs 3-10 lakh, depending on the course and its nature.