IIM-A public policy course draws recruiters

Come March 2008 and recruiters at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, (IIM-A) will have another batch of students to choose from.

After the response to the first batch of the Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) which saw well over Rs 1 crore in packages, all eyes will now be on the first batch of the Post Graduate Programme in Public Management and Policy (PGP-PMP).

It is targetted at those looking to take up senior management positions in public management and policy.

Although rolling placements would begin in mid-January, placement officials said that a number of firms have already visited the campus to enquire about the batch and more are expected by December-end.

Most of them are infrastructure companies, SEZs, NGOs and some private organisations dealing with government projects.

Close to 100 firms are being contacted by the placement committee for the programme. However, unlike other programmes, only 21 of the batch of 33 will be available for placements since the rest are sponsored by government departments.

Sebastian Morris, Chairperson, PGP-PMP said that in all probability public sector packages offered would not be as high as corporate offers but their positions would be much better in terms of remuneration and profile than the positions held by participants before joining the programme.

For the first batch taking the programme, the institute had sifted through 330 applications from which 33 participants were selected.

Some 58 per cent of candidates from the batch were from government departments, 18 per cent from public sector undertakings (PSUs), 12 per cent from banks, 6 per cent from NGOs and the rest 6 per cent hailed from private organisations.

Whereas the number of applications for other programmes at IIM-A almost doubled after the placements of the first batch, the institute plans to employ a tougher screening criteria in terms of the applicant's GMAT score, background and experience when compared to last year to encourage more quality than quantity for PGP-PMP.

The cut-off GMAT score was 600 last year and the average score was around 660 for candidates who were offered admissions to the programme.

The participants are presently on an international immersion programme for six weeks to eight weeks where they have either taken up projects and academic work in financial regulation, governance and policy formulation and implementation, infrastructure development, management of international organisations and others with collaborating universities like the University of Geneva, University of Texas at Austin, Carnegie Mellon University among others.

Also, IIM-A has decided to throw open its course for candidates with legislative and/or ministerial experience for the batch of 2008-09.

The institute is hoping to attract candidates who are at least 27 years old and have one or more years of experience as a minister at the Centre or as a Member of Parliament or with two or more years of experience as a minister at the state level or as a member of an assembly or have served local bodies for five or more years.