Ahmedabad University joins hands with Bengaluru-based, School of Meaningful Experiences

Dr Rakesh Godhwani Dr Rakesh Godhwani

Ahmedabad University and School of Meaningful Experiences (SoME), Bengaluru, have come together to offer one-of-its-kind Management Development Programmes (MDPs) for corporate professionals, middle managers, and senior executives in India. The MoU, between the two entities, was signed with the mission to upskill and enhance the leadership and managerial acumen of corporate employees and help them become business leaders of tomorrow. The content will be created and delivered jointly by SoME and Ahmedabad University faculty.

SoME, one of the leading education start-ups in Bengaluru, facilitates continued education and learning beyond the standard curriculum based on its “Six Cs” model - Communication, Confidence, Curiosity, Creativity, Collaboration and Competence. Founded in 2018 by communication expert, corporate coach and author, Dr Rakesh Godhwani, SoME, summarises its mission as empowering people with education that hones their life skills and aids their personal, professional, mental, and emotional growth in a holistic environment.

Speaking about the programme, Dr Godhwani said, “These courses have been designed after taking into consideration the gaps in MDPs offered by various business schools and online EdTech companies. It has been seen that the courses offered by these entities are of very short duration and lack in-depth focus on all-round upskilling of the learners, especially with too much focus on hard skills and very little or no focus on development of soft skills. Middle management professionals are the bridge between ideation and execution. Through the courses offered jointly by SoME and Ahmedabad University, we intend to address the deficits in the continued learning space for senior and middle level managers by providing them access to carefully curated, balanced course content in a blended online mode that takes into account their need for flexible learning. Most courses for senior and middle management do not provide learners the opportunity to interact on a one-to-one basis with the faculty members and mentors. Through the MDPs offered by SoME and Ahmedabad University, learners will receive one-to-one feedback and learning assistance from the tutors. They can also request for individual mentoring sessions to gain perspective on fine-tuning their career. ”

The MDPs are segmented as per the learning needs of the different levels of organisational management. The first course is for middle level managers.  HR and L&D departments of every organisation often find it challenging to find suitable MDPs that enhance the leadership and managerial effectiveness of their teams, especially middle and senior managers. This course is designed to help them improve their professional problem-solving and decision-making skills with equal emphasis on influencing their stakeholders, especially CXOs and BoG levels, team building and conflict resolution abilities.

The second MDP is for the young professionals, team-leads, budding first line managers, aged 25 to 35 years who are engaged in roles that directly impact revenue and client impressions. They are technically honed, but may need a transformational programme that enhances their managerial competence. The course is designed to help them learn and practice the growth mindset, identify, and tackle bottlenecks in their career path, build strong collaborations, and present and execute innovative ideas with confidence.

Highlighting the features of these programmes, Professor Pankaj Chandra, Vice Chancellor, Ahmedabad University said, “At Ahmedabad University, we have maintained a consistent focus on multidisciplinary, research-based education for all. The average duration of these courses is 6 months (21-24 weeks), and the learners will be awarded certificates by SoME that are endorsed by Ahmedabad University after successful completion. The courses have been designed to make the content and learning relevant for targeted sectors including tech, manufacturing, automotive, robotics, etc . They will learn to deal with the challenges they face at work like managing a diverse range of pressures from the business. Simultaneously, they will also gain insights on developing their leadership thinking, ability to communicate with confidence with all stakeholders, be more collaborative and competent in making data-driven decisions, innovative thinking and problem solving.”

Elaborating on the process, Professor Devanath Tirupati, Dean of Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad University said, “The learners will be provided access to synchronous sessions with world-class experts, faculty, and guides from Ahmedabad University and SoME. All lectures will be recorded and shared with the learners in case they miss a particular session. Printed reading materials will also be sent to the participants along with the program workbook. They will also be able to access the Learning Management System(LMS) at all times during the duration of the program that has extra resources like case studies, videos, quizzes, reflection exercises, etc.”

Organisations interested in registering their employees for the MDPs can connect with SoME through their website for more details. ( https://some.education/ )

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