Get coached, get job offer too

Updated on: Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Coaching academies boast of top-rankers and high scorers coming out of their stables. Now they will have something more to scream about: their placement record.

The line between tutorials and the formal education sector has been blurring with each trespassing the other’s territory – coaching academies have tried to earn respect by starting their own schools and colleges, and institutions have set up private tutorials with an eye on the huge profits. Now, the Maharashtra Coaching Classes’ Owners Association (MCCOA) has gone one step ahead by inviting companies to hire their graduating class this year.

Coaching classes across Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur will hold placements for their graduates. Clearly, the tuning between the next street coaching centre and its students is undergoing change like never before. “We feel a sense of responsibility towards our students. They are the most important element in the education system. Colleges are handing out degree certificates and acting as if their job is done,” said Jagdish Walawalkar, the association’s president.

Top city institutes conduct campus placements, but lakhs of graduates in tiny anonymous colleges have never experienced the elation of two or more corporates falling over each other and upping their salary bids to hire them. “These students sign up with recruitment agencies or go from company to company scouting for a job. We thought why not pitch in and act as an intermediary,” said Narendra Bambwani, MCCOA vice president.

Guidance on career also on offer by coaching classes

Alongside graduation, several students take up professional courses like chartered accountancy or company secretariat and go on to get sixfigure starting pay offers. “But those who pursue a vanilla arts course or a science programme do not even know how and where to start looking for a job,” said the principal of a top city college, who did not want to be named, but appreciated the coaching classes’ move. Coaching classes now promise to fill that gap too.

The Maharashtra Coaching Classes’ Owners Association has set up a core-committee to shortlist companies and invite them. “When we sent out invitations to companies, we realized they are looking for students who are good at basic accounting skills, have a passion for chemistry or even history students,” added MCCOA president Jagdish Walawalkar.

The classes will also conduct career-counselling workshops for students wanting to study further. “There are several skilloriented short-and-long-term programmes that graduates can take up that can eventually help them bag good pay packages and success in life,” said Walawalkar. Placement and career counselling by coaching classes will take place when this month closes and would go on till early May. Ironically, the coaching class association will rent a college or two to conduct the massive recruitment exercise, which now comes as an enticement with tutoring.

Get coached, get job offer too

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