Ahmedabad, March 9: This placement year the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, will help ‘firm up’ plans of students who opt to skip the corporate ladder and start their own ventures. And how? “The institute will introduce, for the first time, sops like placement holidays for students who want to give entrepreneurship a try. This means, students can try their hand at their own ventures, and if they feel the need, they can sit for placements next year or the year after that,” says IIM placement co-ordinator PK Sinha. The reason behind the move: “More students are in the mood for entrepreneurship this year,” he says.

Last year, six students from the institute chose to start their own ventures and the number is expected to cross 15 this year, say sources. Of 249 students from PGP 2005-07 batch, 235 are taking part in the placement process this year. Forty students have earlier expressed the wish to join start-up companies and 19 have showcased ideas for their own ventures at various platforms, they say.

“Not all students who are sitting for placements will opt for managerial posts. There are some who are preparing to launch their own venture, but are still to finalise ideas. So while they may be sitting for placements, they may move out anytime if things work out venture-wise,” says Sinha adding: “We are trying to find out how many students have have had projects for their own venture sanctioned. We are also trying to ascertain how many have already started working on the projects.”

“It is good that more students are planning to refuse fat pay packages to start their own business. This is a reflection of the fact that students are now increasingly willing to move away from managing resource to creating resource,’’ he adds.

Placements at the institute are conducted in three slots, each given two days to complete. This year, Day Zero, which began on Thursday, is likely to continue till Saturday. The number of recruiters is expected to remain more or less the same as last year’s 120, say sources. But there are a few new companies taking part this year, they say.

The pay packages are also expected to see an upward swing with more number of students in PGP batch this year having had significant prior experience, they add. The placements are expected to go on till Tuesday.