HAM (Human Asset Maximization)
There are over 4700 B-Schools in India, as per records and more than four lakh management graduates are passing out every year. But, it is an indisputable fact that a vast majority of these graduates do not possess the required “soft skills” of a manager(HAM) and hence fail in acquiring a decent placement.
In a highly competitive market, it’s important that a student can make himself/herself stand out from the crowd. Employability refers to a person’s capability for gaining and maintaining employment. Employ-ability depends on the Knowledge, Skills & Abilities (KSAs) they possess, the way they present those assets to employers
HAM (Human Asset Maximization) is a program which is especially designed for IPER’s MBA student’s to help the students to enhance their soft skills and personal effectiveness. The major objective of HAM is to identify & train the talented and qualified professionals before they complete their education. This process reduces the time for an industry to pick the candidates according to their need.
In this students are made to participate in various activities which work as a platform for them to communicate in front of everybody and boost their self-confidence. Besides English language skills the students also learn, presentation skills, listening skills, Business etiquette’s, Mannerisms, Interview skills and Resume writing skills. Students are also taught how to face the interview panel and are made to prepare for the unexpected business situations in real life. Tools like out of box thinking, six thinking hats, impromptu, business line, and perceptual competence help in achieving competitive edge.
The students are divided into categories like Beginner, Intermediate and Advance as per their competencies. According to this their respective modules are also designed and they are tested periodically for the same.
The secret of employ-ability
These skills are often referred to as “transferable” meaning that they are applicable across a range of academic disciplines as well as in employment.
a) Self-reliance – self-management, readiness to accept responsibility, flexibility, resilience, time management
b) People skills – teamwork, communication skills, listening and questioning, respecting others, contributing to discussions
c) General employment skills – problem solving, literacy, application of numeracy
d) Specialist skills – business and customer awareness, application of Information Technology
Underpinning all these attributes, the key foundation, must be a positive attitude: a ‘can-do’ approach, a readiness to take part and contribute, openness to new ideas and a drive to make these happen.
HAM Course Pedagogy is designed such a way that proper attention will be given to all the 4 Modules – Aptitude & Reasoning Ability, Group Discussion, Personal Interview and Public Speaking. Each MBA class/section will be divided into 2 parts. They will be called Houses. In all there will be 8 Houses.
This year the HAM Course opened with an introductory session about the objective and expected outcome of HAM and the institute’s expectation from the students. In initial 2 days (9th & 10th Mar, 2014) HAM session was solely dedicated to Mock Campus Placement Drill-1 in which the students were judged upon their Aptitude & Reasoning Ability, GD Skills and how they fair in Interviews. The students got a fair idea as in where they stand now (i.e. in the beginning of the course)
At the end of Semester 2, the HAM Course will end with another Mock Campus Placement Drill-2. The pattern would be the same with which the course had started, but here, all the rounds will be elimination rounds. In between both the drills students will be taught and evaluated on different aspects of placement processes, soft skills, personality development, GD’s, PI’s and Public Speaking.
(for further pic’s of the “Mock Campus Placement Drill-1” event, pls. visit IPER’s FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.683030131758443.1073741852.117885121606283&type=1 )
Pls. Note: Reference used, while writing down this piece of article is- IPER MBA’s Course Outline for “HAM” prepared by HAM team headed by Prof. Shiladitya Verma. Other HAM Team members are Prof. Ravi Chatterjee, Prof. Rahul Kumar Choubey, Prof. Paramjeet Singh, Prof. Priyanka Rawal, Prof. Sneha Shukla, Prof. Gazal Sharma & Prof. Abhishek Pratap Singh Sachan
