While India has a young population with an average age of 27-28 years, a demographic dividend which will continue for the next 30-40 years, the young need quality education for the right jobs. India today has 600 universities and 38,000 colleges but only 18 per cent of school pass-outs enrol in universities, said G. Viswanathan, Chancellor, VIT University, speaking at the inauguration of the Chennai School of Business Excellence at the Sri City EPZ at Tada, 90 km from here.
Korea, on the other hand, he said, saw a 100 per cent enrolment. The Government had to expand enrolment into universities, he said.
The educated youth need jobs and while India is doing well in services, it’s manufacturing that can create the jobs. “We need to create at least 100 million jobs a year and we need good entrepreneurs to do that,” exhorted Viswanathan.
The new business school, which has come up on a three acre plot (to eventually expand over 10 acres), will offer a two-year post graduate diploma in management with 120 seats.
Being located in the heart of the Sri City EPZ will help the students intern with the best of companies, said school co-founder P.K. Mohapatra.
While the CBS Trust, which founded the Chennai Business School in the city, offers a one-year programme, Mohapatra said that 80 per cent of graduate students wanted to do a two-year traditional PGDM programme.
The school had originally looked at setting up the B-school on the ECR but with world-class companies in Sri City creating their own eco system, the founders thought it best to move to the EPZ, he said.
The IFMR business school is also coming up here. The hostels will be ready for the second batch, he added.
Ravindra Sannareddy, Managing Director, Sri City, said that 90 companies from 24 different countries were setting up facilities at the EPZ.
Forty have already sprung up. These include MNCs such as Colgate-Palmolive, Kellogg’s, Alstom and Kobelco.