Wigan & Leigh College, which began its operations in Kolkata barely a year back, has succeeded in placing all its post-graduate management (MBA) students as paid interns in companies in the city itself. The internship runs con-currently with the two-year diploma course and attracts stipends ranging between Rs 2,000 and Rs 4,000 per month, according to a release.

The stipend is “more or less sufficient even at the lower end of the scale, … to cover the student’s tuition 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 Principal Consultant of the college, Dr Haimanti Dhir. She says that no other institution in India offers MBA courses which come with the add-on of working in the corporate sector.

The deal benefits all and there seems to be no catch. If students are happy, so are the companies that are absorbing them.

Says Mr Pururaj Dutt, general manager-personnel of Duncans Industries Ltd, which has taken on Wigan students: “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 for work and are contributing to the fields they have been assigned.” Agrees Mr Shekhar Chatterjee, chief financial officer of Stollberg, the new German company which has recently set up operations in West Bengal, “(the college’s) post-graduate business management programme along with paid apprenticeships in a partner organisation is indeed a unique concept and fulfils a long felt need for effectively blending hands-on industry experience with management studies.”

Among the other companies who have taken on Kolkata Wigan PG students to work as paid interns are MMG Realty, Radiant Advertising, Continental Advertising, ICICI Bank, Prudential-ICICI, HDFC Mutual Funds, Kotak Securities, Sketch Advertising and Standard Chartered.