Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) is a two-year management program offered by business schools across India. The program is designed to give exposure to students – both experienced and fresh-out-of-college graduates – about the various facets of management. All organizations, ranging from small to big, ranging across industries from food to fuel are run by people having experience in managing such organizations. A PGDM program is designed to provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills to run such organizations.
A PGDM is a rigorous two year program in which the students are introduced with subjects in multiple streams of management such as marketing, finance, HR, operations and others. During the first year, common subjects introducing the various management streams are covered. These subjects include fundamentals of marketing, fundamentals of accounts and finance, introduction to HR and organizational behaviour and others. Certain business schools, such as Asian Business School Noida, which are sensitive to the environment surrounding us in our vicinity, cater to an all-round development of students with subjects in other important realms. These subjects include environmental management, business environment, and also subjects covering media management focusing on management in the media industry. In the second year of the PGDM program, the students are assigned their specialization subjects depending on their preference. They then focus on their respective specializations for enhancing their knowledge and to get the required skills for adding value to the organizations where they will eventually get placed.
Besides the regular course work, a PGDM program also focuses on all round development of students by way of other activities such as organizing management and faculty development programs, organizing college cultural and business annual fests, organizing and participating in case study and business quiz events conducted by B-schools across the country. The students are also exposed to a two-month internship where they get a real-time exposure to what management work is all about.
Admissions to PGDM programs are usually based on management entrance tests, most common being CAT/MAT/XAT/CMAT/ATMA and others. Most business schools have their cut-offs in terms of percentile of marks obtained in these entrance exams, and overall academic and otherwise performance.
Majority of students in good business schools get placed while they are pursuing their management education at salaries ranging from 4 lakh to 40 lakh per annum depending on the organization, students’ exposure and experience, and business school’s repute.
Management is an all-pervasive domain operating in all industries, and with the rise of capitalistic pursuits and expansion of business practices across the globe, has become even more relevant in the last two decades. With the government of India also supporting businesses and manufacturing in India, and as businesses get global at a rapid pace, we can only expect the requirement of managers to enhance in the times to come. All in all, a PGDM with a reputed business school is only going to take one’s career trajectory in the right direction.