With the motto of ?do your own thing for next two years?, Delhi University?s Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) is set to offer placement holiday to up to seven students from this academic year. The FMS placement holiday will allow students with entrepreneurial aspirations to start or be partner in a new venture. If the venture fails, the student will have the option to participate in the placement process but within two years of graduating. Most of the Indian Institutes of Management have already given this option. ?Under this policy, aspiring entrepreneurs can opt out of placements to start a venture and avail the facility at a later date, if need be. In this way, we are indirectly encouraging students to start off on their own. We are trying this option but its success will depend on the response from students and the companies which come for placement,? FMS dean Kuriakose Mamkoottam told FE.
As a part of the placement deferral policy, students can quit the entrepreneurial venture any time before sitting for placements but should not have taken up a non-entrepreneurial job in the interim period. They will also have to inform the placement team two months before the process starts that they wish to participate in the placement process. A maximum of 5% of a batch will be allowed to opt for the placement holiday and companies will be told either in the application or during the on-campus evaluation process that the candidate is not from the current batch.
According to Mamkoottam, currently only a handful of students opt for entrepreneurship at FMS. ?The policy will encourage students to become job creators in the long run,? Mamkoottam said. But FMS will not offer any financial assistance to the aspiring entrepreneurs. ?This is where their entrepreneurial skills will be used. We haven’t found any concrete steps of tying up with venture capitalists who come for on-campus placements,? Mamkoottam said.