Kolkata, Aug 25 - They were earlier men in olive green protecting the country. After bidding farewell to arms, these retired armed forces personnel are honing their skills at India's premier management institutes to equip themselves for crack civilian jobs in the corporate sector.

The six-month Armed Forces Programme (AFP), started three years ago by B-schools like the Indian Institutes of Management, has been helping the former soldiers increase their job prospects.

'They retire early from armed forces but have long years ahead of them. The course provides them with customised training for corporate jobs,' Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) Director Shekhar Chaudhuri told IANS.

The management schools do not have placement services for the trainees. 'But we act as facilitator by letting them use the campus for job interviews,' Chaudhuri said.

The IIMs run the course once a year as per an agreement with the directorate general of resettlement (DGR) under the defence ministry.

Apart from the IIMs, the Xavier Labour Relations Institute in Jamshedpur and the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon also run courses for the just-retired armed forces personnel.

'We have 30 subjects and projects in this course,' retired Captain Manish Srivastava, now studying at IIM-C, told IANS.

The subjects include operations management, cost accounting, marketing, retail marketing and strategic management.

Asked to spell out the experiences which they were likely to encounter in the corporate world as distinct from their defence experiences, another trainee, retired Wing Commander P.M. Srinivasan of the Indian Air Force, said the novelty would lie in the 'less hierarchical approach in the business sector'.

'All armed forces personnel are adept at planning and execution.