Reliance ties up with Birla Institute to offer online retail course

Mumbai, Jun 26 (UNI) An online Executive Program for Retail Management (EPRM) has been launched by Birla Institute of Management and Technology (BIMTECH) today in association with Reliance Communications and Philadelphia University, USA.

The EPRM is an eleven-month, 300-hour integrated course designed with the Philadelphia University. This program has been specifically designed to build the domain knowledge and managerial skills of executives in the retail industry.

BIMTECH and Philadelphia University will jointly deliver the course content through the Reliance World video conferencing based virtual class room platform in 240 virtual classroom in 105 cities.

The professors will visit India for contact sessions with the students and will travel across the country to guide the program participants through on-the-job projects.

The 300 hour virtual course will have 40 hour on campus training at Birla Institute Campus in Noida. The course fees has been fixed at Rs 1.60 lakh.

Commenting on the launch of EPRM, Reliance Webstores Ltd Director and CEO Sarup Chowdhary said, ''We will consider placing 10 per cent of these students in our company.'' BIMTECH Director Dr H Chaturvedi observed that, ''There is a gap in the professional retail training in the country and this course is specifically aimed towards churning out trained retail professionals''.

Retail is the second largest employer in the world after the government services. The retail industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian economy and organised retail constitutes a mere 3.5 per cent of the USD 300 billion retail industry in India, thus offering a huge opportunity for retail management professionals.

UNI