Kolkata, May 18: Wigan & Leigh College, which began its operations in the city barely a year back, has succeded in placing all its post-graduate management students as paid interns with leading companies in Kolkata. The internship runs concurrently with the two-year diploma course and attracts stripends ranging from Rs 2,000 – Rs. 4,000 per month. “The internship remuneration is more or less sufficient even at the lower end of the scale to cover the student’s tution fees – which in effect means that he is getting an MBA, coupled with actual work experience, without really having to shell out a lot,” says the college’s principal consultant, haimanti Dhir.

“This i our key differentiator – that unlike other academic institutions in India, we work very closely and in partnership with industry. Wigan students join companies as paid interns – postgraduates in the third year of studies,” she said. if students are happy, so are the companies that are absorbing them , she claims. “we were one of the first organisations to have taken apprentices from Wigan and Leigh. The students are quick learners, willing to stretch themselves within the time available,” Pururaj Dutt, general manager – personnel of Duncans industries Limited which has taken on Wigan students, said. Agrees Shekhar Chatterjee, chief financial officer of Stollberg, the Germany company which has recently setup operations in West Bengal, “The post-graduate business management programme along with paid apprenticeship in a partnering organisation is indeed an unique concept and fulfils a long felt need for effectively blending hands-on industry experience with management studies.”