B-schools to introduce women-oriented courses

Business schools are now focussing on budding women entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship programmes are tailor-made for women who are on the rise across B-schools. And some of these programmes are completely free of cost.

At 49, Saguna Bakhai a freelance travel agent jet sets between exotic hill stations every two weeks. Kashmir, Ladakh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Manali, are just some of the places that she frequently visits.

However, her life was very different a few years ago. Saguna was a homemaker for 20 years and she decided she needed a change.

The women entrepreneurship course at Narsee Monjee Institute or NMIMS gave her a new lease of life.

"I decided, instead of joining a travel agency and taking up a job at this age, it's better to start whatever little I can do on my own," says Saguna.

Enterprise Training for Women's course coordinator at NMIMS, Sujata Mukherjee feels the course helps women come into their own.

"This course gives them the skill to do something on their own. It helps them to build their self-confidence and helps them to network with other people," she says.

IIM Bangalore too has been running a similar course for women since the last four years. Also the Indian School of Business (ISB) has recently tied up with Goldman Sachs to offer an entrepreneurship course for women starting from November 2008.

This course is absolutely free of cost and Goldman Sachs will provide the entire funding.

However, only those entrepreneurs are eligible who have revenue earnings between Rs 1,00,000 to 15,00,000 per annum.

"If you look at women, they form almost half of the gender population but if you look at their representation in terms of the workforce, in terms of entrepreneurial activity, that seems to be extremely low," says course coordinator, Women Entrepreneurship, ISB, Deepak Chandra.

"Keeping such factors in mind, this course is a way by which we can integrate or promote women into workforce and entrepreneurial activity, that would improve the productivity of the economy," he adds.

Women account for about 15 per cent of an IIM class. But now with institutes taking a keen interest in designing courses tailor-made for them, one can expect to see more women like Saguna Bakhai who are willing to take the risk and shine at B-schools.

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