If you can’t find them, educate them. Even as India marches along on the 9 per cent growth path, companies have started feeling the dearth of manpower to keep pace with the growing demands of a growing economy. Now, with the objective of becoming talent self-sufficient, some companies like ICICI Bank and Crisil are turning educators. It’s too soon to call it a trend, but it could well become the norm in the years to come: companies running professional courses tailored to their job needs.

Taking the lead in this training-cum-hiring option is ICICI Bank, which, along with NIIT, has set up the Institute of Finance, Banking and Insurance (IFBI) to turn out financial services professionals. Says S. Venkatesh, president, IFBI, which is offering a Post-graduate Diploma in Banking Operations (PGDBO): “The banking sector currently employs 900,000 which is expected to increase to 1.5 million over the next five years. Recognising that the growth of this sector may be limited by a scarcity of talent, IFBI is looking to groom entry-level professionals in banking and insurance.”

It’s a win-win for all. Graduates get a professional education, get paid a nominal stipend while studying; and when they complete their course, some of them even get absorbed by the company. Companies get people who are job-ready. Says Venkatesh: “The need of the hour is to create academic programmes that combine knowledge, skills and the application orientation required by new-age banks.”

IFBI’s PGDBO is a six-month full-time programme, with three months of full-time classroom work and three months of internship. Placement of the first batch is a formality. Says Venkatesh: “ICICI Bank has agreed to recruit all students of the first batch as officers on successful completion of the course. “Even for subsequent batches, ICICI plans to give provisional letters of appointment to chosen candidates, a placement model that IFBI plans to sell to other banks also.

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