If you have the will, you will find a way. And this is exactly what the Indian students at the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) have done. They have chosen to build a career by taking up courses at the institute, despite the cost or distance from home.
The coursework offers them fewer holidays compared to Indian colleges — just a two-week annual break with another week’s vacation during the year. But the students feel it is worth studying at the institute.
Mudit Gogia from New Delhi had been experimenting until he found a course close to his heart. After Class XII, he joined a hotel management course at Oberoi’s Trident Hotel in Jaipur.
“I learnt as I trained,” he recalled his experience. But within months the “crazy working hours” and an indeterminate future turned him off. However, he found his experience there useful when he chose an advanced diploma in Mass Communication at MDIS. “My mom chose this institute as it is closer home,” he says.
In the three months that he has been at the institute, he has learnt the nuances of advertising and writing a press release, he says.
For Gayatri Gopalan, a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biomedical Science student from Thiruvananthapuram, it was career choice that prompted her to join MDIS. Daughter of a driver and a shopping mall assistant, she has taken a loan of Rs. 30 lakh. “I am confident of landing a job here to repay the loan,” she says.
When Arpit Goel of Panipat chose B.Sc. (Hons) in Marketing at the government college there, his path was set. He is now pursuing MBA in International Marketing at MDIS, a programme that would prepare him to join his “dad’s export business.”
For some, education at MDIS is a chance to build a career in entrepreneurship.
Vignesh M., from Chennai, chose to specialise in fashion marketing and branding. Alumnus of APL Global, Thoraipakkam, his interest lies in luxury branding.
But Prerna Jain from Kolkata is “keen on opening a financial consultancy” firm after her degree in MBA Banking and Finance.
Having done her math, she says a similar course in India would set her back by two years, whereas at MDIS, she can finish the course in a year for the same cost.
She has just five more months to go before completing the courses. With the institute’s promise of lifelong learning, these students are setting a trend of their own back home.
The writer was in Singapore on the invitation of MDIS.
