Continued, relentless focus on the desired outcome: Praxis’ rise to being the best data science institute in India
When the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, one of the direct implications was massive layoffs and uncertainty about jobs. According to media reports, around 12.2 crore Indians lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Globally, the number stood at 114 million. It was worse for students just waiting to get into the workforce. On-campus placements painted a sad picture, and there were just not enough off-campus placement opportunities. Even in such a delicate time, Praxis Business School achieved a feat of sorts when more than 95% of the students of their 2020 batch bagged prestigious jobs, and none of these offers was retracted. Praxis’ nine-month full-time Postgraduate Programme in Data Science is usually pursued by candidates who leave their jobs to build a lucrative career in data science. Needless to say, placement is a big deal; with Praxis’ stellar record, candidates did not have to regret their decision. And it has only gotten better since. For the January (Spring) 2021 batch, the institute recorded 100 per cent placement. It is a big milestone for Praxis as it has hit centum after recording up to 95 per cent placements in previous years. The Praxis success story Praxis has added yet another feather to its cap by topping the list of Data science programs in the India survey conducted by Analytics India Magazine in 2021, conducted across 44 diverse programs in the country. Commenting on the same, Prof. Charanpreet Singh, the founder-director of Praxis Business School Foundation, said, “If I have to pick one reason we have made it to the top, it would be our continued, relentless focus on delivering on our desired outcome – to get each of our students an exciting first job in the field of data science. Everything we do at Praxis is designed to achieve this objective – the design of the curriculum, the delivery, the pedigree of our faculty, the quality of our campus placement team, the engagement with the industry, the complexity and variety of our Capstone Projects, the deep relationship with our alumni, etc.” He also added that Praxis has developed into a centre of excellence for developing and nurturing data science resource persons, who industry practitioners would be keen to recruit to their teams. A testimony to this is the successful career transformation of 27 batches (and counting). “Our final desired outcome is seeing our students get good career opportunities in the data science field, and in the process, become better thinkers and better learners. The reason is that 85% of our class leave their jobs, take a career break and join this program – so we have a responsibility to vindicate their decision,” he said. This success story is no mere coincidence. Prof Singh and his able faculty and management team have painstakingly built it over the years. Prof Singh credits three main factors that helped them become successful. The first factor is a student-first attitude where the student is placed at the centre of decision making and execution. He adds that this strategy helped them sail comfortably through the testing COVID-19 era. “We worked with our students to address and solve issues that we had never thought would crop up,” he said. Prof Singh counts the quality of their pedagogy as another major reason behind their stellar performance. He said that the carefully curated pedagogy is further enabled by a skilled faculty team, industry partners, and a competitive bunch of students who are selected through a rigorous process. “The third factor is the power of our global alumni network – professionals who have done brilliantly well in their careers and are both the best ambassadors of our program and wonderful mentors for our existing batches. We are the only Data Science program to have two of our alumni feature in the 40 under 40 Data Scientists list that AIM curates” explains Prof Singh. “There is no finish line here – we have to keep improving the metrics – the quality of profiles, the quality of recruiting organisations, the percentage of students placed, the average salary, the average hike over the pre-Praxis salary, the highest salary, the conversion rates (from applicants to final offers),” he concludes. Student testimonials Arpit Malhotra, a PGPDS holder from Praxis (batch of July 2020-21), was placed as Assistant Manager at Genpact, Financial Services Analytics. A B Tech and M Tech degree holder from IIT ISM Dhanbad, who had been working at a cushy job at Coal India Ltd., the priority was making most of the professional risk he would take to be part of the data science revolution. But, according to Malhotra, one year into his new role as a data scientist, he realises the value of the Praxis course and how it positively impacted his career. He says that the biggest confidence booster is the fact that the Praxis team knows what it is doing. He and his fellow students went through extensive 9-month training with 550 contact hours, an instructor-led program. He says that the coverage and rigour of this program are unparalleled. Apart from the fact that the curriculum is designed with industry inputs, maintaining a strict balance between practical and theoretical knowledge, what impressed Malhotra was that there was focus on courses like market research and analytics, financial, healthcare, web analytics, where students understood the application of data science to business situations. He believes that anyone joining the industry post this program will have the ‘Praxis advantage’. Another success story is of Geetha Joseph. A Praxis graduate of the class of January 2021, Geetha bagged a data consultant position at PwC. What makes her story special is that she joins the workforce after a career break of seven years. She said, “I had taken a break for seven years and chose Praxis as my platform to relaunch my career. I would urge women with a science/engineering/eco background who want to get back to work after a break to join the Praxis Data Science Program. It changed my life – it will change yours too.” She credits her successful career relaunch to the meticulous placement committee at Praxis, of which she was also a part. “The Placement team worked in a mission mode to ensure that every student from the batch gets placed – it was as if Praxis took ‘ownership’ of each student’s career – and it was a proud and happy moment for all of us when, as a team, we achieved 100% placements for the batch. I was impressed by the fairness and complete transparency in the process,” she adds.
Praxis has added yet another feather to its cap by topping the list of Data science programs in the India survey conducted by Analytics India Magazine in 2021
Praxis has added yet another feather to its cap by topping the list of Data science programs in the India survey conducted by Analytics India Magazine in 2021
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I am a technology journalist with AIM. I write stories focused on the AI landscape in India and around the world with a special interest in analysing its long term impact on individuals and societies. Reach out to me at shraddha.goled@analyticsindiamag.com.