The path ahead

I am a B.Com graduate and want to build my career as a microfinance practitioner. Is there any scope in this field and do I have to do any additional course?

India being a country of many poor villages, where access to banks, financial institutions and financial systems is least, micro financing does show great opportunities. Moreover, the central government and the state government both are showing immense interest in many states to improve their microfinance sector and hence there seems to be enough scope for this sector to grow.

Organisations such as NABARD, SIDBI and SBI associates, OBC, and some other private banks and funds are involved largely in microfinance. Besides this, there are the MFI’s i.e. the Microfinance institutions which comprise of the new generation’s microfinance practitioners and various social development agencies. The involvement of the NGO’s and the private and public sectors in micro financing shows a huge scope of growth.

Entry-level jobs can be found in microfinance institutes, in various banks and research institutions. The Microfinance institutions’ primarily hire a graduate (in any field) if you have an understanding of the social and economic conditions in your state. You could be hired as a local coordinator, a local organiser, a community organiser, a group promoter or a field officer at the operational level. You being a commerce graduate, stand a chance of being hired as credit officer or be given an accountants post.

Professional graduates in the field of MBA, engineering, agriculture, horticulture, etc stand a chance to be hired as the area/regional/zonal manager with an excellent pay package. Once you get a thorough experience in working for a good MFI, you could be hired by international microfinance organisations in various developing countries. To get a wider understanding of this sector it would always be advisable that you pursue a certificate course or a diploma in microfinance.

The Microfinance Association which is a nonprofit professional membership organisation, it provides a three-month certificate course in microfinance. You can enroll for the course at any time of the year. The certificate in Microfinance provides a broad based, practical introduction to the key ideas, techniques and skills needed to be a microfinance practitioner. The certificate is ideally suited to the needs and aspirations of both those who are new to microfinance, and those who need a wider understanding of the sector.

The programme is flexible and allows you to fit your studies around your work and social commitments. IIBF(Indian Institute of Banking and Finance) and Sa-Dhan in collaboration with IIBF offers a distance learning microfinance diploma and the exams are conducted twice a year in June/July and November/December. The exams are held both online and offline mode. For further details you can visit there site: www.iibf.org.in.

Banaras Hindu University offers a two semester part time diploma program in Microfinance and Entrepreneurship

The Centre for Microfinance at IFMR, Chennai, conducts an internship programme for three months for undergraduates and graduates.

The Institute of Finance, Banking and Insurance (IFBI), established by NIIT in association with ICICI Bank offers a three-day programme for working professionals. AFC Institute of Management and Technology offers 6 months diploma course in Microfinance. Fresh batch starts on the 1st of every month and admission for each batch is done between 1st and 25th of the month.

EDA Training Division provides high quality training for the microfinance development.

Refer:

http://www.edarural.com/content/specialist-training-programmes

Certified Expert in Microfinance is a 6 month e-learning course provided by Frankfurt school of Finance and Management.

Iam confused about my career choice after tenth standard. Should I opt for medicine or non-medicine stream, please advice. -Gowri, New Bhoiguda

Most of the students completing their 10th standard are confused about deciding a right career path. Selecting the right course after class X is not an easy task. For a successful career, careful planning and following it up with a workable plan is needed. Career exploration, knowledge about one’s own self, decision making ability, future goals are some among the essential elements needed for a successful career planning.

For deciding a potential career, one can also attend educational fairs, career guidance seminars that allow you to get in touch with several institutes and courses. The first and foremost factor in choosing your subjects or stream is to find out whether you are truly interested in it and enjoy studying it. It is said that you’ve already reached half way when you start doing anything with interest.

To obtain a strong foundation for further studies like graduation and post graduation, the selection of the streams in +2 is vital. It depends upon the student’s aptitude, grade and marks. But the most important factor is one's keen interest in the subject and the purpose for selecting the course.

Commerce - Deals with courses on trade and business

Science - Deals with courses in Medical sciences and Engineering

Arts/Humanities - Deals with a very wide range of courses such as History, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, languages, Anthropology, Human Resources, journalism etc.

Opt for medical only if you are interested in biology and learning about the human body and its functioning, and of course if you can secure good marks in BiPC.

Science stream: It offers lucrative career options to students after 12th standard. It opens up the career options in Engineering and Medical sciences. The major subjects that are offered in the Science stream are Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, Mathematics, Biotechnology, and Computer Science. For anyone who wants to study Engineering has to study Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and those who want to study Medical sciences has to choose Biology as a main subject.

A student has to take at least six subjects including English.

Medical stream requires extreme passion, tremendous commitment and also comparatively it takes up a few more years for its completion. You should be ready to dedicate yourself to serious studies if you choose to take up this field. Eventually it will fetch you lot of satisfaction, prosperity and contentment.

If you are selecting science stream, you have an option to come back to commerce or arts field later. There are a lot of options available for students of science stream. They can either take up conventional courses such as engineering, medical, management etc. or go for many other upcoming options in the present scenario. If you are selecting commerce stream, you can have the option of taking courses in arts field at a later stage but cannot go for science field.

If you’re good in any of these subjects like maths, physics and chemistry then you can opt for engineering, architecture, civil aviation and merchant navy. Commerce stream: can be illustrated as study of trade and business. The stream has been increasingly chosen by a large chunk of students after completion of 10th standard, due to its attractiveness in terms of finding early employment and also beginning of entrepreneurship.

If you like working out with numbers and also enjoy finance related studies then opt for commerce. You can choose CA, CFA, ICWA, Certified financial Analyst, Stock Broking, CS, MBA as your further studies. Arts stream: Arts stream has a wide variety of subjects which can offer exciting opportunities. Selection of Arts stream after 10th examination enables to pave the way for choosing some other gripping careers.

This stream offers subject History, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, English, Hindi and Sanskrit for the higher secondary level. But one has to opt for four compulsory subjects in addition to English and a Modern Indian Language. If anyone has interest to pursue a career in mass media, journalism, literature, sociology, social service, human psychology, politics, economics and history then you must choose Arts stream after passing 10th examination.

On the other hand if you want to take up arts then you can go in for mass communication, media management, arts, psychology, hospitality, law or academics, graphic designing, multimedia, web designing etc. If you are creative and can think out of the box then go for animation, web or graphic designing.

Career choice basically depends on factors such as interest, aptitude, motivation and personality. If you can consult a career counselor, who will after performing the psychometric tests guide you and help you wisely decide which subjects or stream to choose after your 10th.

By:shehre banu