‘Internships in B-schools is of paramount importance’: Prof. Ananth Rao
An international internship workshop was organized at the International School of Business Research (ISBR) at its Electronic city campus on Wednesday, 21st June 2017. Prof. Ananth Rao, Dean, Dubai Business School, University of Dubai was the chief guest of the workshop. Prof. Rao highlighted the importance of internships for B-school students and how mere classroom teaching won’t be sufficient for the new-gen B-school students.
“Classroom learning is not everything. Classroom learning needs to be applied in the real world,” said Prof. Rao. Speaking on the importance of Industry-Academia linkages, Prof. Rao said, “Harnessing Industry-Academia linkages will go a long way; students need a more hands on approach at problem solving. A student needs to understand the functioning of a company closely and come out with solutions for the various problems a company might be facing.”
“Rote learning, copying, reading and writing have to be replaced by critical thinking; logical reasoning and analytical thinking,” opined Prof. Rao.
“Internships could be career placements for the right candidates and Indian students are the brightest students, they are hard working and they stand a good chance to get placed during the international internship” said Prof.Rao.
Mr.Abbas Ali, Head of Placements and Corporate Relations addressed the students and mentioned, “Internships are opportunities that need to be exploited for ones career growth. It gives a perspective into what sort of skills are required at the global level. An internship is the first and most important step in one’s career.”
Internships are considered as an academic phenomenon in most universities which is a wrong concept opined Mr. Ali. “Making students employable and catering to the industry needs is important. Academics is one of the ingredients of one’s career. It is not ‘the’ ingredient.” said Mr.Ali.
Prof. Nanaiah Pattada, Head of Industry Relations said, “India will have a different kind of economic system, the overhaul is happening already. The biggest sectors for jobs in India would be the agriculture sector, retail, and health care.”
Speaking about how different organizations and jobs require different resume formats, Prof Nanaiah said “Resumes need to be different and in accordance with the organization or job one applies to. A resume for an internship has to be different from a resume one uses to apply for a job. The format has to differ depending upon the needs.”