The changing mindset of the Indian consumer has brought about an expansion in the retail sector locally, nationally and internationally. This is likely to generate large-scale job opportunities in the near future.

With this in mind, a certificate course in fashion retail management has been designed by IIM-Ahmedabad. The areas covered in the course include overview of retail, store operations, visual merchandising, retail selling skills, inventory control, business analysis, loyalty programme, fashion product knowledge and IT, among others.

Pearl Academy of Fashion (PAF), has partnered with IIM (Ahmedabad) and Shoppers Stop to start this course. Tarun Panwar, head of department, retail, PAF, says, We would like to keep pace with the change and train people with the right skills who can direct and accelerate this growth and take retailing to the next level of evolution.

After nine months of classroom training, students would undergo a paid nine-month on-the-job training (OJT) programme at any of the Shoppers Stop outlets across the country.

The duration of the course is 18 months and there are 25 seats for the course. As to how the course will help students, Panwar elaborates that the skill-set that students acquire during this course coupled with onthe-job training will make them ready for any sales and marketing profile, even outside the retail sector.

This will help students explore sectors such as hospitality management, infrastructure management and marketing and sales, to name a few, he explains.