TAPMI’s PGDM (HR) Program
TAPMI extends its rich legacy of creating future business leaders over the last 30 plus years, through the launch of the PGDM (HR) program in the academic year 2018-19. This program envisions creating industry-ready HR professionals of high calibre, to address a growing gap in the availability of such HR talent, who are capable of growing into strategic business partners. HR roles are expected to change significantly over the next 4-5 years and the expectation is that HR leaders will play strategic business roles. The mainstay of the PGDM (HR) program is to provide a strong foundation to students interested in a career in HR, to be able to handle the evolving challenges in managing people and organizations.
The program has been designed with the intention of creating maximum value for the industry and for the students:
Triadic Academic Focus: The conceptualization and implementation of effective HRM practices require highly competent HR professionals who possess holistic understanding of business, society and government and are well-equipped in all the aspects of HRM. However, the employment market is facing the ironical reality of huge demand as well as acute shortage of competent people managers at all levels. The PGDM (HR) programme, therefore, strives to develop “People Management” competencies of future HR professionals through courses from the Behavioural Discipline (Individual, Team and Leadership Competencies), HRM Discipline (Functional and Strategic HR Competencies), and Institutional Discipline (Employee Relations and Industrial Relations Competencies).
Collaboration with Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): TAPMI has worked with SHRM for co-designing HR courses relevant to industry requirements, in a first of its kind engagement within two year post graduate programs in India. These courses provide a deep exposure to knowledge that is extremely relevant to industry, and also allow for the students an opportunity to become a SHRM-CP certified professional. The SHRM-CP is a globally recognized indicator of the knowledge and ability of the student as an HR professional. Students will be coached by SHRM experts and inhouse faculty on preparation for the certification exam. The students will also get SHRM student memberships to leverage the SHRM resources online.
Industry engagement through conferences in HR: To engage more with the industry to be in touch with the current vibes in HR, deserving students will be given an opportunity to attend some of the leading annual conferences in India – SHRM, NHRDN, NIPM. Students will also have an opportunity to author and submit papers in HR conferences.
Workshop and certifications: The course provides for multiple workshops to get hands-on experiences of important aspects like emotional intelligence, assessment centres, HR audit, appreciative enquiry, and tax planning. There are certifications available for competency mapping and compensation, as well.
Faculty-guided research: A faculty guided project is completed in the first year to help students develop deeper understanding on specific issues related to people in organizations. Students will take up a project and submit a report. The project would require a minimum of 100 hours of work from student to ensure successful completion, under direct supervision of an HR faculty member. All the students in the program will be personally mentored by HR faculty to provide guidance and support.
#HR4HR – Leveraging TAPMI HR Alumni and industry connections: The topmost suggestion for a program of this kind is to be able to connect industry-relevant courses with experiences from HR experts. TAPMI has a strong alumni base in HR roles at senior leadership positions globally. As an indicative list of alumni: Ramakrishna V (Director-HR, IDFC), Deepak R (Chief -HR, Bajaj Finserv), Sanjeev S (APAC head-staffing, Google), Jacob J (CHRO, Columbia Asia Health care), Sameer L (DGM, HR, Glenmark), Anirvan S (Director-HR, UBS), Nishant G (Head HR, Hotstar). The program will give the alumni an opportunity to give back to the institute through regular interactions and guidance sessions with the students of the program. Further, using TAPMI’s vast network within the industry to connect with senior industry HR leaders, to get them to visit regularly and share experiential knowledge is a vital part. This will be a regular activity, under our #HR4HR initiative.
An experienced Advisory Board: A new program with a great vision needs to be in touch with the realities on the ground and gain strategic inputs from leading HR professionals and thinkers. The PGDM (HR) Advisory Board does precisely this, through annual meetings and regular interactions for ideas and strategic inputs. The following are members of the Board: Chandrasekhar S (Professor -OB & Strategic Human Capital– Indian School of Business), Prasad D N (Independent Leadership Coach and Talent Strategist), Dedeepya A J (Associate Director – Knowledge & Advisory – SHRM), Nishith M (Group President- HR, Manipal Education & Medical Group), Sunita C (SVP– Group HR, Wipro Limited), Yogi S (SVP– Corporate HR, Larsen & Toubro Limited).
xMIP – Extended internships: One of the oft-repeated suggestions for a program of this kind is to have more industry connect and exposure. One way the program will achieve this for its students is through providing an extended period of internship during the summer after the first-year course work, called xMIP. The program provides for a maximum of 3.5 months (around 14 weeks) of internship. This will be a win-win situation for both, the student as well as the company; the company gets to define a significant project for the internship and gets to observe and develop the student for a longer time; the student gets more hands-on exposure to the industry and gets to work on better quality/variety of projects. The students will prepare for the SHRM-CP certification and appear for the examination during the latter part of their internship for a period of 10-15 days, which are not counted in the 3.5 months internship period. Companies would be investing in potential HR professionals with globally recognized SHRM-CP certification, by catering to this exam preparatory period, if not for themselves, but for the larger HR fraternity.
Harnessing the TAPMI advantage: Students stand to gain from the unique transformational leadership centre on campus: Leadership Assessment and Development Centre (LADC) which equips them to be transformational leaders, through rigorous assessment and coaching processes. This is a one-of-its-kind centre in India. Additionally, from a number of the batches which have graduated from TAPMI there is at least one CEO in the industry today per batch. This is a huge advantage from an industry connection perspective for students of this program. Beyond this, TAPMI has its brand in the market to be able to achieve the plans of the program. Other advantages provided to students are, being taught and mentored by faculty of great standing; and with latest academic research work being connected with the classroom teaching. Technological advances being used in education is another advantage that students can leverage.
Advantage of newness!
Last, but not the least, by being a new program, PGDM (HR) at TAPMI is able to start without any baggage pulling it down – rather the program starts with the advantages of being at TAPMI and builds on further by being able to do newer things such as SHRM collaboration for courses and Advisory Board, being open to innovating based on the inputs from industry. The program will continue to evolve, with these inputs and continuously aligning to the HR profession’s needs in the coming years. Invest and be part of this journey to contribute to a better HR tomorrow.
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