Thakur College and BSE team up to offer course in financial markets

Among the numerous goals the new government has set itself, financial inclusion is an important one. Citizens must be aware and involved with the financial systems of the country to derive maximum benefits from different schemes of the government. Considering the high percentage of youth population in the country, academia will play an important role in the achievement of this goal. In order to promote financial literacy, Thakur College of Science and Commerce has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Institute to set up a Financial Literacy Mission Centre at the campus. 

Through this collaboration, Thakur College will provide the Global Financial Markets Professional (GFMP) programme in finance and financial markets to students. All students who have cleared their class XII exams will be eligible for the course. “Most of the faculty members will be from the BSE institute. Any student who wants to build a career in banking and financial services sector can apply for the course,” says Vinod Nair, head, academic and product development, BSE Institute. In addition to four semesters, the GFMP programme will comprise of an additional semester of industry practice i.e. an internship at different financial organisations. “Depending on their performance during the internship, the students will also be given placement assistance,” says Nair. 

The rapidly changing education scenario led to this collaboration and subsequently the initiation of this course. “There is ample opportunity to be absorbed in different organisations these days provided a student has the required skills,” says Chaitaly Chakraborty, principal, Thakur College of Science and Commerce. Since students of the college regularly visited BSE institute for study or career reasons, a more significant collaboration materialised after several rounds of seminars and presentations. According to Chakraborty, the programme is ideally designed to provide a useful add on to students along with their graduation degree. “Students who begin this programme during the first year of degree college will complete it during their third year. So by the time they finish their degree, they will have a BSE certificate and some kind of professional experience too,” she said.

In addition to GFMP, BSE institute has also planned a programme for the faculty members of the commerce and finance stream of the college and is also planning to introduce some courses for parents. The objective for all these courses is to impart skills and help meet the objective of financial inclusion for different sections of the society.