The Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) has launched a management programme in collaboration with leading management and engineering institutes to train professionals for the small scale sector.
The objective of the Small Industries Management Programme is to develop a cadre of industrial managers specifically trained to assist small scale industry entrepreneurs in their multiple responsibilities, Sidbi managing director Sailendra Narain said.
The bank has signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology; Indian Institute of Management; Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur; Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai; and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi; for running quality management programmes.
The programme also seeks to open new avenues of productive employment for young graduates, who are otherwise not professionally qualified.
The programmes would serve the twin objective of offering a second line of trained managers of affordable salary level to all entrepreneurs and professional qualification to those seeking employment opportunities, Narain said.
Sidbi has also planned to provide financial support through a corpus to reputed regional institutions for strengthening the programmes and giving it a distinctive long-term image.
The fund will place a lumpsum amount with selected institutions for an additional period of five years after signing a MoU, Narain said.
The bank has also set up a task force for providing a platform for experience sharing and guidance to the various institutions involved in conducting the programme.
More than 50 per cent of the management students trained through earlier programmes had been well placed through campus recruitments, he said. Sidbi is negotiating with other reputed management and engineering institutes to conduct such programmes.
The programme, started primarily for unemployed non-technical graduates, now covers industry sponsored participants for management strengthening, Narain said.
A substantial cost of the programme is being funded by Sidbi. The students enrolled in the programme pay only a nominal sum as fee. This is being done to ensure better involvement from the students and reduce drop-outs, Narain said.
