The Method · How programmes are designed and delivered
The curriculum is hers. So is the standard.
Sabira Merchant designs every programme, certifies the faculty who deliver it, and oversees the assessment that decides who earns the certificate. This page explains how that works, and who will be in the room.
Why a curriculum, and not a personality
Most etiquette training in India is one person in one city. It is only as good as that person’s diary, and it cannot be rolled out to a hundred branch staff or a management-trainee intake in three cities. The alternative is a curriculum: what is taught, in what order, with which exercises, and how the result is judged.
Sabira Merchant has taught professional presence for decades, from Femina Miss India winners preparing for the world stage to corporate teams and management trainees. Her curriculum is that experience written down, revised, and turned into something faculty can be trained on and held to. It is the same approach behind any teaching institute that outlasts its founder: the standard lives in the material and the certification, not in one person’s attendance.
Princeton Academy, a corporate training provider since 1997, facilitates the institute: venues, batches, registrations, certificates and in-company contracts. Ms Merchant’s role is the curriculum, the faculty and the standard.
Four things that are true of every session
01 · Designed
She writes the programme
Every module, exercise, dining drill and assessment rubric is authored and revised by Sabira Merchant. Programmes are updated as workplaces change, from video-call conduct to messaging etiquette, but the standard of judgement stays hers.
02 · Certified
Faculty are trained by her
A faculty member is not simply hired. They are taught the curriculum by Ms Merchant, observe her material being delivered, deliver it under observation, and are certified only when she is satisfied. Certification is per programme, and it is reviewed.
03 · Overseen
She reviews what comes out
Participant assessments follow her rubric. Sample assessments, faculty notes and participant feedback are reviewed under her direction, so the quality of a session in one city is checked against the same measure as a session in another.
04 · Certified on her curriculum
The certificate names the standard
Participants who complete the programme and its assessment receive a certificate of completion on the Sabira Merchant curriculum, issued through Princeton Academy. It records the programme, the date and the standard met, not which faculty member happened to be in the room.
How a session runs
Etiquette cannot be learned from a slide. Every programme is built around doing the thing, being corrected, and doing it again.
- DemonstrateFaculty show the behaviour, and its common failures, before anyone is asked to try it.
- PractiseIntroductions, conversation, a working meal, a difficult client. Role-play in pairs and small groups.
- CorrectIndividual feedback on posture, voice, dress and conduct, in the room, while it can still be changed.
- AssessA short assessment against her rubric closes the programme and decides the certificate.
Who will be in the room
Who conducts the sessions?
Every programme is designed and overseen by Sabira Merchant. Sessions are delivered by faculty she has trained and certified on her curriculum. Depending on the format, batch and schedule, Ms Merchant may conduct part of a session personally. The content, the standards and the assessment are hers in every case.
Can we request Ms Merchant for a particular session?
You can ask, and Princeton Academy will tell you honestly what is possible for that date and format. What we will not do is sell a seat on the promise of her attendance. The programme you receive is the same programme, to the same standard, whoever delivers it.
How are faculty certified?
By her. A faculty member learns the curriculum from Ms Merchant, observes it being delivered, delivers it under observation, and is certified per programme when she is satisfied. Certification is reviewed, and faculty are not named publicly on this site. See Faculty and certification.
Is the in-company programme the same as the open workshop?
Same curriculum, scoped differently. An in-company programme is adjusted to the industry, the roles and the situations your people actually face, and it comes with attendance and assessment reporting for HR. Open workshops are the general version, in a mixed cohort.
See the programmes built on it.
Six programmes, one curriculum. Three as open workshops in Mumbai, all six in-company.