Dr. Iqbal talked about the progress and achievements of the IBA as a legacy institution of Pakistan. He highlighted the IBA's diversification strategy, whereby, it welcomes students from all backgrounds and social classes, purely based on merit. Last year, around 800 students received financial assistance amounting to Rs 231.5 million. He also introduced the IBA's National Talent Hunt Program (NTHP) that has been in existence for 10 years and aims at facilitating students from unprivileged areas to enroll in higher education universities in Pakistan.
The students through this programme, undergo 2 months of training to strengthen their English, maths and grooming skills. Dr. Zeenat Ismail, Director, Talent Hunt Programs, mentioned that some of these students perform exceptionally well at the IBA by qualifying for Dean's list and getting a job at renowned multinationals.
IBA has a wide alumni network and assists students in getting their desired job placements after graduation. For this purpose, the IBA Career Development Centre (CDC), has been active not just in facilitating the graduate placements, but is also endeavoring to ensure the professional development of the IBA students by organizing several career development workshops, Experiential Learning Projects (ELP) for final semester BBA students, one-to-one counseling sessions, mock interviews, and assessment centers. According to the recent employment survey, out of the 210 BBA graduates, around 80% managed to find employment within 3 months of their graduation.
While talking about the IBA Centre for Entrepreneurial Development, Dr. Iqbal mentioned that this center support various student run startups through its incubation. It aims at equipping young minds with the necessary techniques of entrepreneurship and has initiated many special programmes such as Women Entrepreneurship, Certificate in Entrepreneurship (CIE), National Entrepreneurship Program (NEP) across Pakistan and Science and Technology Based Entrepreneurship Program (STEP).
One of them recently won an international prize as well. The IBA Center for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) is a breeding ground for new business startups by the students. The Center hosts around 50 incubator and accelerator companies in its premises and provides a conducive environment for turning ideas into business opportunities.
Kamal Siddiqui, Director Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) said that the center was established 3 years ago and since then, it has trained around 700 journalists - both national and international - in areas like editing and reporting, print and broadcast media, social media et al. The IBA CEJ offers a Master's programme in Journalism and conducts various workshops and seminars to edify working journalists at IBA's State-of-the-art facility.
Mrs. Malahat Awan, Head of Alumni Affairs, Graduate Placement, External Relations, and Resource Mobilization, alluded the IBA as an 'Island of Excellence', during the Press conference. While responding to a media person's query as to why IBA always invites political figures at the convocation, Dr. Iqbal said that it's a misconception and the institute always invites accomplished individuals who are prominent in their fields of expertise. It is due to this reason, the IBA has invited Dr. Atta ur Rehman as Chief Guest for this year's event. Dr. Farrukh Iqbal expressed great optimism for the role of IBA in progress of Pakistan and hoped that it will continue being the legacy institution of the region. The programme ended with an interactive Q&A session.-PR
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017