From Virtual Classrooms to Boardrooms: ‘Launchpad 2025’ Redefines Online Placements

Unknown Apr 02, 2026 350 Views

In a first-of-its-kind initiative to bring online students and top recruiters together under one umbrella, Online Manipal hosted a first-of-its-kind hybrid career fair, 'Launchpad 2025', for Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ) and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) students. The career fair, hosted on June 13, 2025, in MAHE's Bengaluru campus, merged a conventional on-campus placement fair with a month-long online placement drive, thereby setting a benchmark for the online learning sector.

Key Highlights

Massive Enrollment: The participation of more than 1,000 online students among 8,000+ eligible students was a reflection of numerous undergraduate and postgraduate courses such as MBA, BBA, MCA, BCA, MSc Data Science, MCom, and BCom.

Diverse Recruiters: More than 60 of the industry's best employers from IT, HR, Operations, Sales, Finance, and Data Science fields participated. Leading recruiters include Goldman Sachs, Accenture, Adobe, HP, Honda, ICICI Prudential, Lenskart, Colive, SBI Securities, and Bajaj Allianz.

Impressive Offers: A total of more than 500 job offers have been made so far, the highest offer of ₹18 lakh per annum and average offer of ₹5.5 lakh per annum. Online placement drive is still in progress, with additional offers to be received by the end of June.

Higher Engagement: The blended model facilitated peer-to-peer networking and real-time feedback, bridging the gap between online learning and real-world application. The caliber, preparedness, and industry expertise of the applicants impressed the recruiters.

Student Success Stories: Aneesha Ghosh, an MBA online student, was offered two company placements, which is a testimonial to growing acceptance and value of online degrees by leading companies.

Voices of the Event

"The talent pool for Launchpad 2025 was top-notch—confident, well-researched, and industry-savvy. We've hired some fantastic talent and we're looking forward to participating in the future editions," said Syed Hashim, HR at Lenskart.

"Launchpad 2025 gave me the opportunity to interact in person with leading recruiters, something I never imagined as an online student. It really made me a convert to the power of online learning," Aneesha Ghosh, MBA International Business, MUJ, said.

This programme rededicates Online Manipal's resolve to filling the employability gap for online students and testifies to increasing industry faith in online learning.

Source: The Tribune India, Careers360

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