Reliance WebWorld to host mgmt classes

Reliance Infocomm's retail interface initiative, Reliance WebWorld is entering its next phase of development.

The telecom giant is planning to use Reliance WebWorld platform for the guidance for exams such as SAT, GRE, TOEFL and GMAT. The company is in talks with few more reputed institute to join hands and promote virtual class room facilities at WebWorld.

Reliance will offer certificates to master degree level courses with duration ranging from two months to 14 months in affiliation with educational institutes. However, the company has no plans to offer training for competitive exams for B-schools such as CAT, MAT and CET.

The company announced its tie ups with management schools like the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubhaneshwar (XIMB), and Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur.

It intends to position Reliance WebWorlds also as e-learning centres with number of course on its menu, in near future.

According to a study conducted, 98 per cent of the students fail to get an admission in their selected institute, said company sources.

Through virtual class room facilities at the 240 WebWorld stores in 110 Indian towns, Reliance will provide them access to careers.

Reliance Infocomm's future tie-ups with a number of premier institutes and educational bodies is expected to be a major breakthrough in distance learning in India.

"Reliance already has first hand experience of training nearly 2,500 staff members through distance learning with the help of facilities such as video conferencing facilities," Sarup Chowdhary, CEO, Reliance WebWorld told Business Standard.

At present, Reliance Infocomm has an arrangement with US based CyberLearning to offer 1,500 courses ranging from Personal Career Development to Introduction to Six Sigma providing certifications from IT majors such as Sun, Microsoft and Cisco.

CyberLearning also offers preparatory courses such as SAT, GRE, TOEFL GMAT in affiliation with Barron's, which will now be available from Reliance WebWorld platform.

Commenting on the courses from Reliance WebWorld platform, Chowdhary said "We have divided courses in two parts. One is Self Paced Courses where student can complete the package according to own schedules and the other is courses through Virtual Class rooms.

Students will attend the classes simultaneously in number of centres while the lecture will be delivered from single place.

Reliance will have about 60 class rooms each with capacity of 10 students.

"Students will have an advantage of face to face delivery of training content and interactive session using the video conferencing platform, Videos on demand for multimedia and rich learning content," added Chowdhary.

To conduct examinations, XIMB and XLRI will utilise the network of Xaviers colleges across the nation.

Reliance WebWorld aims to start the courses through XIMB and XLRI with 150 students each. The company will aim its courses for mid career executives who wants to add some more certificates in their portfolio.

"There are number of portals that are offering distance learning but that lacks ground level support. The arrangement by Reliance WebWorld addresses the dynamics of the present day scenario," said Chowdhary.