SKILL PILL: The Global Education Centre at Mysore, and (below left) Annick Renaud-Coulon of the Global Council of Corporate Universities

The Greek-style open air amphitheatre of the Global Education Centre built by information technology major Infosys at Mysore is perhaps symbolic of the company’s global aspirations. The Rs 2,055-crore mega campus, spread over 337 acres, is the largest corporate education centre in the world.

There are more such ventures. Retail giant Future Group has set up Future Innoversity, a corporate training facility, to groom managers and supervisors for retail outlets like Pantaloons and Big Bazaar. Future Innoversity has three campuses — in Bangalore, Calcutta and Ahmedabad — and some more are likely to come up soon. Says Muralidhar Rao, CEO, Future Innoversity, “Initially, we tied up with a few institutes to train new recruits. But when this didn’t work, we decided to launch our own institute and run courses in retail business and entrepreneurship.”

Welcome to the world of corporate universities. Every self-respecting corporate house today either boasts of an educational facility of its own or shares one jointly with other companies.

“A tidal wave of corporate universities has touched the shores of the developing world,” says Annick Renaud-Coulon, founder and chairman of the Global Council of Corporate Universities (GlobalCCU), Paris. “There are about 4,000 such institutes in the world. The number has more than doubled in the last decade,” she adds.

©Jean-Francois Labat

Mahindra Satyam, the IT business consulting services firm and also a member of GlobalCCU, has set up Mahindra Satyam Learning World (MSLW), a corporate university for its employees and associates. MSLW delivers 45 per cent of its lessons virtually and also uses a web radio and web-based TV channel for interactive learning. The institute has a tie-up with the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (Bits), Pilani, for a masters in software engineering, a work-integrated programme for those who want to study while working.

Human resources experts say that corporate universities are increasingly becoming common as they bridge the gap between the skills with which fresh graduates come into industry and the skills actually needed.

“Most graduates of engineering colleges and B-schools do not pick up the necessary skill sets. Not just soft skills, they need to learn the nuances of new technology, strategy and logistics,” says E. Balaji, director and president, Ma Foi Randstad, a human resources company. At Ma Foi Academy, Chennai, thousands of prospective recruits of big firms are trained in specific skills to make them “job ready”. These could range from programmes equivalent to an advanced computer science degree to soft skills such as the right way to dress, or even write a proper email.

Corporate universities are also useful when it comes to upgrading the talent of employees — a key requirement for survival in a fast-changing global market. “Nowadays, companies believe that it’s better to groom and upgrade your internal talent rather than expect to pick them up from traditional educational institutes,” says Sunil Rai, chief executive of Mumbai Business School.

According to a recent study by management consultants McKinsey & Co, only 25 per cent of fresh engineers, 15 per cent of fresh finance and accounting graduates, and 10 per cent of college graduates are adequately prepared to work in multinational firms.

So, how exactly do these corporate universities make up the skill deficit in new recruits? “They offer a lot of activities (as opposed to old-fashioned chalk and talk lessons): seminars, workshops, conferences, collective publications and so on,” says Renaud-Coulon. Adds Neha Anand, leader, marketing and communication, School of Inspired Learning (SOIL), Gurgaon, “Our lessons are more practice oriented and interactive. We lay a lot of emphasis on live case studies.” SOIL’s consortia of 33 members — including Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Bharat Petroleum, Infosys, Aditya Birla Group, Nokia, Dabur, Larsen & Toubro and ICICI Bank — are directly involved with curriculum design, student selection, live consulting projects and individual mentoring.

The concept of corporate universities is not new. The US-based conglomerate General Electric had begun “creating, identifying and transferring organisational learning skills” in budding managers at its Crotonville Learning Centre near New York in 1956. Clearly, it’s a concept that India has taken to in recent years, so much so that even if a company does not develop its own in-house learning centre, it usually has a tie-up with one where its managers are brought up to scratch.

S. Sriram, executive director, Great Lakes Institute of Management (Glim), Chennai, says they regularly train executives from Godrej, which helped set up the institute. International Management Institute (IMI), Delhi, set up by the RPG Group, among others, also trains company executives. Himadri Das, admission chairperson, IMI, says RPG regularly sends personnel for training at the institute.

Says Bala Balachandran, founder and dean, Glim, and professor emeritus at Kellogg Business School, “Corporate learning is need-based and experiential. It is customised, whereas traditional learning is commoditised.”

But in-house corporate learning comes at a price. For example, Infosys has invested Rs 1,705 crore in education and training-related infrastructure at its Mysore centre.

Some companies have envisioned the corporate university concept somewhat differently. At Wipro’s Azim Premji University at Bangalore, for example, the aim is to “prepare a large number of committed education and development professionals who can significantly contribute to meeting the needs of the country.”

The company is already running a not-for-profit trust called Mission 10X which trains teachers of engineering colleges. Says Damodar Acharya, director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, and an advisor to the project, “This approach educates the faculty of various engineering colleges in innovative teaching methodologies through workshops, active engagements and interaction through a portal.”

Still, not everyone thinks that corporate universities are a good idea. Amitava Gupta, professor of power engineering, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, feels that corporate universities are nothing more than finishing schools that offer a restrictive knowledge suitable to a specific job, as opposed to the holistic education given in traditional universities.

Agrees Debashis Chatterjee, director, IIM, Kozhikode, “Corporate learning provides a kind of a tunnel vision to students as it caters to the particular needs of companies. They tend to gloss over the fact that learning is about creating a multi-dimensional human being rather than a money-churning robot.”

But the naysayers are in the minority. Right now corporate universities are clearly the flavour of the season. And unless educational institutes keep up with changing times, more and more companies will resort to in-house education to provide employees with the competencies they need.

Company universities are catching on

■ Infosys at Mysore

■ Future Group’s Future Innoversity has campuses in Bangalore, Calcutta and Ahmedabad

■ Mahindra Satyam has set up the Mahindra Satyam Learning World in Hyderabad

■ Wipro’s Azim Premji University in Bangalore is expected to open in mid-2011

■ Ma Foi Randstad, the headhunter, has set up Ma Foi Academy in Chennai

■ 33 companies, including ABB, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Bharat Petroleum, ICICI Bank, and Johnson and Johnson, have set up the School of Inspired Learning (SOIL), Gurgaon in Haryana