The ideology behind our education system is to contribute significantly to the development of society, says Piyush

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Piyush Bahety, Business Development Head at International School of Design, Kolkata talks at length about the industry-oriented curriculum and the institute’s approach to help students become industry-ready. He elaborates on strong industry alliances with market leaders such as TATA Croma that facilitates students with live projects, industry visits, workshops, masterclasses and internships.

Piyush has over eight years of rich industry experience and has worked with top brands such as Britania, Marico and Aar Gee Agencies.

Read the complete interview below:

Q: What are the three things that your institute is doing that will enable it to differentiate itself from the competition?

A: With the intense competition out there- where there are more than 3,000 designing colleges and universities, we at INSD believe in giving the best to our students in terms of industry knowledge and experience.                                            

Our focus is mainly on:

• Strong foundation: INSD being an Award-winning institution has a strong foundation of over 57 centres across India and INSD Kolkata is the first of its Eastern India Centres. Always in the spotlight, INSD has collaborated with many prominent platforms in the past including several colleges from around Europe and the United States. The ideology behind our education system is to contribute significantly to the development of the Indian Design Industry.
• International Offerings + Industry Exposure: We believe in a lot more by offering an International programme such as The Paris Project where students are given the opportunity to learn from International industry experts and we also provide the students with the opportunity to showcase their talent in events such as New York fashion week and London fashion week. We also give our student's industry exposure through projects such as Tata Croma which was a learning experience for them.
• Career: There’s no place like the design industry where creativity and technology meet, and where innovation thrives. We have a placement assistance record of 100 per cent with students working in various world-class organisations such as Home lane, Manubhai Jewellers, Benetton, Vogue interiors, Marks&Spencers, Fine edge, PC Chandra Jewellery, Artyz, Swakritii, Fashion Land, Au Finja and many more.

Q: What are the top three initiatives are undertaken by you that are helping your students become more industry-ready?

A: Following are the initiatives undertaken by us to help our students become industry ready:

• Industry Integrated Curriculum: Our curriculum is practically creative which makes it more responsive to the industry’s need. We provide the students with skills for employment and positive work values that need to meet the demands of the changing industry and global designing environment which includes industry visits, internships, workshops, seminars, masterclasses and many more.
• Strong Alliances: INSD focuses on bridging the gap between Academics and Industry. Through our strong alliance with the designing industry, we guarantee that our students get the best insight knowledge about the industry through exchange programmes, industry visits, guest lectures and many other opportunities. We are strongly collaborated with TATA CROMA for their in-house projects to name a few.
• Industry Events: Students are actively looking to learn a lot more, so we encourage our students to participate in various projects like the Tata Croma, International events such as New York fashion week and London fashion week as well as domestic events like Asian designer Week, Couture Week and India Runway week where our students get the opportunity to showcase their work to the Global audience. 

Q: What are the key attributes that a student should have in order to?

A: Students should have the passion for the course that they choose. We urge them to be diligent, confident, interested and career-oriented. At INSD, we give our students immense exposure and motivate them to walk the extra mile. Students are urged to go out for industry visits, take part in extra-curricular activities like workshops and seminars. Students therefore should build their way up by learning from industry experts by taking part in events and benefit as much as possible from this. Our main focus is on education and learning rather than grades.

Q: Which programme/s would you say is/are your best? What is it that helps your institution differentiate itself for this programme? 

A: All our programmes have been meticulously designed to nurture the leaders of tomorrow. Each course is specifically acclaimed and focuses on giving our students a global outlook. We have industry experts as our Directors, Head of Departments and Faculties. These academic leaders make sure that all our courses are industry-related, inventive and technology-driven so that our students produce better results.

One special attribute is our Luxury Brand Management course. This course aims to show the students the grass-roots level of founding a luxury business by putting them at the heart of complex situations. Students from any undergraduate and diploma programme are eligible to pursue this course. We have holistically developed a strong alumni base over the years who are working as an Interior designer, Merchandiser, fashion designer and more at some of the top firms and with renowned fashion houses and designers.

Q: What are you doing to improve/drive better campus placements for your current students and alumni? What kind of jobs routinely come to campus? What would you say are the key recruitment trends for your college (observed over the past five years)?

A: We are trying to make our students industry-ready by providing them with special personality development classes from industry experts as grooming mentors help them with proper guidance to kick start their careers.

Our main objective is to provide hands-on training to our students be it in terms of industry visits or industry-based projects which can boost enough confidence in them when they step out in the real world. We try to conduct some mock interview sessions with our students so that they have a better understanding of the industry requirements.

The key trend is that companies need designers who are practically sound and generate original ideas.