The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDUCATION

Conclave to harness soft skills among students
Sanjog Gupta

THE Association of International Education in Science, Economics and Commercials (AIESEC), the world’s largest student-run organisation boasting of a network of over 30,000 students from 800 universities, is organising a conference on ‘leadership development’ at Sterling Resorts in Puri, Orissa. The National Leadership Development Seminar (NLDS), from September 22 to 27, will be attended by 300 university students from 11 cities in India.

The objective of the conference is to bring forth the leadership qualities among the delegates and inculcate values that facilitate the effective harnessing of these qualities. The conference aims at developing certain key soft skills – presentation, selling, planning and inter-personal skills, which stand to benefit students sighting a career in management and other related fields.

The AIESEC, in its 21st year in India, has been conducting the seminar annually and is patronised by eminent industry veterans such as Adi Godrej, Ratan Tata and M. S. Banga. Each year, the organisation recruits a fresh batch of volunteering students from leading universities in India to facilitate the achievement of its objective – developing global leaders.

Sunday brunch

The third-year students of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, as a part of their curriculum at the Institute for International Management and Technology (IIMT), Gurgaon, organised a special event, ‘The Sunday Brunch’ at the South City Country Club today. The event was the third in a series being conducted by the students, who are required to conceptualise, design, plan, manage and execute such events as part of their curriculum.

The IIMT is an institution of higher learning, which offers various undergraduate programmes in the areas of hospitality, business and information technology. Oxford Brookes University, the UK, which has been voted by the ‘Times’ publications as the best new university for the sixth year consecutively, awards all degrees. The IIMT is promoted by Radisson Hotels International, Unitech India and the Edwardian Group, the UK. Through its courses, the students get a complete perspective on event management.

The innovative ‘Retro’ theme formed the backdrop of the ‘Sunday Brunch’ for 160 guests, who were presented with a lavish spread of food, consisting mainly of breakfast items such as croissants and cold cuts. The concept of students managing events from their inception stage onwards is a unique feature of IIMT-Oxford Brookes. At the IIMT, students are able to experience the whole process of event organisation, right from the stage of submitting proposals to the submission of a ‘profit and loss account’ for the event.

Previous events organised by the students - with themes as diverse as the Grand Prix and Chinese - have also proved successful with satisfactory turnouts and a high-level of servicing. The final event in the series will be held on September 21 and is based on a ‘Rajasthani theme’.

Indo-German venture

Students working on an IGEP project.

The Indo-German Export Promotion Project (IGEP) has drawn a long-term strategy to cooperate with the Indian education institutes for increasing business between the two countries. The plan intends to strengthen its support for the human resource development programmes of educational institutes such as Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, the Delhi School of Economics, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and the Pearl Academy of Fashion, which are already cooperating with the IGEP.

The areas of co-operation include provision of technical assistance, assistance in teaching through the provision of German experts under the CIM programme of German Technical Agency (GTZ) and the organisation of seminars and workshops.

Under the aegis of the IGEP, the Pearl Academy of Fashion (PAF) and LDT-Nagold, Germany’s only renowned retail fashion institute, entered into an agreement for offering PG Diploma in Retail Management to impart practical training to budding retail professionals in skills relevant to the fashion industry. The diploma aims at providing skills pertaining to the retailing process, customer behaviour and industry trends.

Media training

Vakmer Consultants Ltd (VCL) has tied-up with the Asian Academy of Film and Television (AAFT) to provide management professionals training in pubic speaking, camera facing, presentation and spirituality. Training will be imparted at the AAFT’s state-of-the-art of infrastructure in Noida.

Prof Sandeep Marwah, director of the AAFT, inaugurated VCL’s new consulting office at New Friends Colony and promised his institution’s full-fledged support to the ambitious plans being harboured by VCL. The director of VCL, Mr A.V. Nair, spoke of his company’s immediate plans and inception of a job portal on the occasion. Eminent consultants such as M. S. Ganguly and S. K. Khajanchi graced the occasion.

VCL is a premier consulting organisation rendering consultancy in the field of integrated management services to assist organisations in meeting the modern challenges of changing perceptions. The company specialises in augmenting core work processes and re-engineering of the same for optimum utilisation of resources.

Risk management

The Indian School of Petroleum (ISP) organised a workshop on ‘Insurance and Risk Management for Oil and Gas Industry’ on September 13 and September 14 at Hotel Taj Mahal in the Capital. The workshop was attended by more than 40 delegates from companies such as ONGC, IOCL, British Gas, IBP, Oriental Insurance, Reliance, ICICI and United India. In fact, the conference was a unique attempt at facilitating interaction between oil industry professionals and insurance gurus.

The workshop entailed presentations by industry stalwarts such as I. S. Phukela, AGM of Oriental Insurance, Parag Gupta, head (risk management) of IFFCO-Tokio, and S. K. Goel, manager of United India Insurance. The workshop broadly covered topics such as risk management, loss minimisation and claims handling.

The workshop provided professionals in the oil and gas industry with a vista for assessing corporate risks in the global market. It also gave an insight into new tools used for implementation of sound risk management policies and exposed the delegates to the new generation options.

The ISP is a unique institution headquartered in New Delhi that offers quality education and training for the petroleum industry. The school is involved in conducting industry promotion and research-based activities. It plans to conduct several workshops in the coming months. The next one will be a workshop on ‘HRM initiatives for Operational Flexibility’ in September-end.

A Kiwi fair

The New Zealand Education Fair 2002 will be held at Taj Mahal Hotel in the Capital on September 20 and September 21. The fair, being organised by the New Zealand High Commission, is aimed at introducing that country’s world class education services to Indian students. The fair will have representation from 19 of the New Zealand’s top educational institutions such as the Auckland Institute of Studies, Massey University, Victoria University and Pacific International Hotel Management School.

A range of courses is on offer at the fair including programmes in business studies, law, IT, science, arts, engineering etc. Specialised courses in dairy technology, forestry, environment management and tourism are also being offered by the participating universities.

New Zealand is believed to provide a stimulating academic environment for international students and is renowned for multi-disciplinary studies, which make it the academic haven of 52,000 international students.

Since English is the native language, the Indian students are believed to hold a potential advantage over students of other nationalities.