Based in Lucknow, the institute will aim at bridging the gap between academic teaching and industry requirements. The Flagship programme, aimed at graduates in 15 Tier II cities, is a six-month comprehensive part-time course encompassing Business communication, Managerial effectiveness, Basic IT and other Specialized Domain knowledge in areas of Insurance, Inventory Management, Accounting, Payables etc. On successful completion of the course, the students will receive certificates endorsed by K J Somaiya Business School.
The Lucknow city launch entails a Rs 1 crore investment, and Elements plans to have 15 more institutes across India in coming 2-3 years. Courses in Retail and Insurance are also in the pipeline. The institute is targeting to train 10,000 students by 2010.
Highlighting the high manpower demand and yet skill-shortages, Mr. Nishant Saxena, CEO Elements Akademia said, “Despite being one of the fastest growing economies with 8%+ GDP growth, unemployment is still an issue. On the one hand, companies want to hire and, on the other hand, there is also enough graduate talent, but sadly there is a mismatch between actual industry skill requirements and what is taught in our universities. Our Flagship programme aims to bridge this gap and make youth employable.”
Leading ITES company Genpact has assisted in course design/delivery and screening criteria for BPO/KPO sector course.
Offering the background of turning an entrepreneur, Mr Nishant Saxena told MBAUniverse.com, “We had been wanting for quite some time to do something on our own - the usual pangs after a decade of corporate career: kuch kar dikhaana hai! Education did appeal to some of us and we felt that the time has come for the corporatization of education.”
When asked how Elements Akademia’s course offering is superior to many other sector focused institutes, Mr Saxena said, “Our course is more comprehensive. Most skill enhancement courses offer only English improvement or only Personality Development or only IT skills or only Technical skills. Our learning suggests that companies look for a combination of all these.”
Prof. Tapan Bagchi has been appointed as the Honorary Dean of the institute. Prof. Bagchi has four decades of corporate and academic experience. He was the founding Chair of IIT Kanpur’s B-school, which he set up in 1983. He also headed NITIE as Director and finally helped setup SP Jain Dubai B-school as Dean.
While IIM Lucknow is not formally associated, its various senior faculty members are helping Elements Akademia in advisory capacity. Former Director of IIML Dr Pritam Singh is the Mentor of the initiative. Prof. Neerja Pandey (Founding Chair of IIML's Communication Group) and Prof. Archana Shukla (PGP Chairperson) are also advising the initiative.
Mr Nishant Saxena, an MBA from IIM-L, has extensive Pan-Asian corporate experience. He is also a visiting faculty at many B-schools including IIMs, NUS, SP Jain etc.
Other IIM alumni who are also investors in the initiative include Rusi Brij, Global CEO and Vice Chairman, Hexaware; Arun Khanna, (IIMA 1987), President of a Fortune 1000 company in Indonesia; Alok Sharma, (IIMA 1990), Heads Forex in a leading American bank; Amit Banati, (IIML 1990), CFO of a Fortune 500 company; Vinay Sharma, (IIMC 1996), heads marketing in one of the top telecom company; Ashwini Sharma, (IIML 2000), VP in a leading European Bank; R Balachandar, (IIML 2000), VP with a leading US Investment Bank; Gangadhar Sulkunte, (IIML 2000), works in a top IT company in US and Ankur Agrawal, (IIML 2003), Head of Operations, Elements Akademia has left a career in Banking and now focusing full time on the initiative.
