How SAP Certification in PGDM Boosts Starting Placements: The Value of SAP in Corporate.

After completing the PGDM or any master’s degree program every student expects a good placement offer. But in today’s job market just completing a master’s degree would not possibly give you a higher placement offer. As the competition in the job market has increased and everything is becoming technology driven, the companies also expect more from the candidates and look for someone who can combine business knowledge with practical, industry-relevant technical skills.

This is where integrating an SAP certification into Post Graduate in Diploma Management(PGDM) can significantly change your career trajectory.

Also let’s first understand what SAP is.

SAP’s full form is Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing. It helps the organisation to manage and integrate their day to day business operations. Also It is used to create a link between different business areas like finance, HR, sales and operations into one central system.

For example, a company with many departments like:

In Finance, you need to manage payments and financial reports.

In HR, you need to manage employees, payroll and recruitment.

In Procurement, you need to manage purchasing and vendors.

In Sales, you need to manage customers and suppliers.

In Operations, you need to manage inventory, production and supply chain.

Even if every department works independently, still SAP can connect these processes and allow information to flow between departments.

That is why SAP is valuable in corporate because modern business processes deal with immense amounts of data across different departments. SAP helps companies to integrate these processes with a structured business environment. This creates demand for professionals who can understand how business processes work within the enterprise systems.

SAP helps organisations with:

→Business process management

→Financial management

→Supply chain management

→Procurement

→Sales and Distribution

→Human resources management

→Data and Reporting

→Business Planning.

For a PGDM student, learning SAP alongside the PGDM degree can become an advantage because it bridges the gap between the classroom concepts and real corporate systems. Most importantly, it can also help the students to position themselves for specialised functional roles, faster hiring processes, and a good starting placement offer especially when their skills match the requirements of the role.

What is a PGDM with SAP Certification ?

A PGDM with SAP Certification integrates management knowledge with specialised training in SAP, an ERP (enterprise resource planning) platform used by organisations to manage and integrate their business operations.

A PGDM degree can provide you with the knowledge of Finance, Marketing, HR, Operations, Business Strategy, Business analytics and Management but SAP training can add practical technological knowledge.

For example, in Operations a student can understand the supply chain management and simultaneously learn how those processes are handled through SAP systems.

Similarly:

PGDM + Finance + SAP = SAP Finance/Functional Roles

PGDM + Operations + SAP = SAP Supply Chain/Operations Roles

PGDM + HR + SAP = SAP HCM/HR Functional Roles

Companies are looking for students who can understand both business processes and enterprise technology, so these combinations can make the student more relevant for their organisations.

1. Direct access to Niche Technical-Functional Roles:

This is one of the most important aspects of adding SAP to a PGDM is access to specialised roles.

A traditional management graduate can get the opportunities in specific areas like:

→Marketing

→Sales

→Finance

→Operations

→Business Development

→Management Trainee Positions

A candidate with relevant SAP training can additional target roles like:

→SAP Functional Consultant

→SAP ERP Analyst

→SAP Business Analyst

→SAP Support Analyst

→SAP Process Consultant

→SAP Project Support roles

→ERP Consultant

These roles requires an understanding of both business processes and technology enterprise,

That’s why these are referred to as functional or technical-funactional roles.

For example, an SAP Operations professional needs to understand operations as well as how

Supply chain processes operate within an SAP environment.

This combination could be valuable because the professional acts as the bridge between

business teams and technology teams.

2. SAP can create a Salary Premium:

This is one of the main reasons why students consider specialised certifications to improve their

earning potential.

To enter the job market at a standard salary range offered for entry-level management positions

students may require a general management course. But a student with relevant SAP competency can potentially earn better than the student having the knowledge of general management skills because they have qualifications for specialised positions.

The possibility of getting premium salary package over the standard package are higher when:

→The candidate has a recognised SAP certification

→The certification matches the job requirements

→The student has practical project experience

→The candidates understands the relevant business function

→The role is specialised and has a shortage of suitable candidates.

However it is not certain that the candidate having the SAP certification will get a higher salary package, the actual salary package depends upon the relevant companies, role, SAP module, candidate’s skills, experience, location and overall profile.

The important point here is that SAP can help a professional to qualify for a different category of roles rather than the generic management roles.

3. Faster Hiring Cycle:

Recruiters can easily identify the professionals who possess the required skills for the relevant job role, for example a company is hiring for an SAP related position and the job role includes SAP, ERP, Business Process Knowledge, Operations and Finance. So the student who has done PGDM with SAP certification would perfectly fit their job description and that student will be recruited.

A PGDM Student with SAP certification can easily be visible to the top companies looking for relevant SAP- related positions.

[Standard Graduate] ⟶ 3-6 Months Training ⟶ Contribution

[SAP Certified Graduate] ⟶ Immediate Contribution

This can potentially shorten the journey of hiring cycle and of course the actual hiring cycle varies by companies and roles. But where the role is specified as a functional role can improve the relevance of a candidate’s profile during recruitment.

4. Stand out in the ATS screening process:

Many top companies receive thousands of resumes or applications for the job interview almost every-day. So to minimize the process and improve the efficiency nowadays, companies have started using ATS (Applicant Tracking System) and structured recruitment processes to screen the candidates based on the required qualifications and relevant skills.

For an SAP related position recruiters must be looking for keywords like:

→SAP

→ERP

→SAP S/4HANA

→SAP FICO

→SAP MD

→SAP SD

→SAP HCM

→Business process

→ERP Implementation

→Functional Consultant

The certification gives the recruiter a verified stamp of capability, it also removes the employer’s risk of hiring an unskilled fresher. So if a candidate’s resume includes these words then it would make them the top applicant for the job role. The PGDM student with SAP certification should accurately represent what they have learned and can demonstrate during an interview and not just simply fill their resumes with these keywords.

5. A Competitive advantage during the Placement drive:

Campus recruitment can be highly competitive in nature. Let’s suppose there are hundreds of candidates filling the applications for a job role having the similar degree, qualifications and similar set of skills. There would be no differentiation point among them because every candidate would have MBA/PGDM, Internship certificate, Basic excel skills, Communication, Academic profile on their resumes.

But now let’s suppose a student has additionally PGDM, SAP Certification, Relevant functional skills, ERP Based experience, written on their resumes or profiles would create a point of differentiation. So instead of being a part of the crowd it’s important to be different and unique from the crowd, this becomes particularly valuable when companies are hiring for specialised business-technology roles.

Final Takeaway:

Integrating an SAP certification into your PGDM course can definitely change your career trajectory and fast-track your entry into high-paying corporate roles. A PGDM combined with SAP certification would widen your scope for multiple opportunities like SAP Functional Consultant, SAP ERP Consultant, SAP Business Analyst, SAP Support Analyst, ERP Consultant. Corporate values a PGDM graduate with SAP certification because the software runs the backbone of global commerce.

Over 80-90% of the top companies use SAP. It helps the student to skip the entry- level positions and jump directly into the technical-functional roles. Freshers who have certifications on their resumes are able to secure 20% to 40% higher than the freshers who are not skilled or they just have the PGDM degree.

In this highly competitive job market, the hiring process is heavily automated. Hence, every company uses ATS in their process of shortlisting the candidates on the basis of their requirements. So if the candidate’s resume will be unique, have some additional certifications on their profile then they will be the perfect choice for the recruitment.