What sets us apart is that we offer equal opportunity to all students on an individual basis, says Vice Principal

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Samuel Sampath Kumar, Vice Principal of Hindustan College of Arts and Science talks at length about the industry readiness of students as a crucial success factor. He elaborates on various initiatives taken by the institute such as mock test papers, group discussion sessions, personal interview rounds to drive better campus placements for students.

Kumar is a PhD holder in English Literature from Madras Christian College with over 25 years of rich academic experience.

Read the complete interview below:

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

A: To provide students with a high-quality learning environment, we have implemented a variety of methodologies, including Smart Class Room, Real-Time Projects, Learn by Sharing (Knowledge Hunt), Paper Presentations, Conferences, Add-on Classes, Leadership skills, Internships, Lectures, Forums, Co-curricular, Extra-curricular, and Sports & games programmes, among others.

We are distinct from those in that we offer equal opportunity to all students on an individual basis. In addition, we scrutinise each potential and lead them in the direction in which they are talented.

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

A: Industry readiness is the most valuable skill that I am sure any institute should be working on, but in order to do so, each must take a different direction. Similarly, we have undertaken a number of initiatives to assist students in being industry-ready, such as:

• Projects, encourage students to design and develop their own ideas for the real-time need in society, with the latest technologies used in the Industry
• In-plant training provides students with the opportunity to visit leading and reputed industries so that they will be exposed to the state-of-the-art technologies they need.
• Workshops are organised in college, by inviting experts from industries with practical experience, which assist the student to be trained with industrial standard equipment.

Q: What are the key attributes that a student should have in order to qualify for your institution and perform well?

A: To be a part of the institute, one must strictly adhere to the qualifying criterion, which is a minimum aggregate of 60 per cent in Class 12. Furthermore, various programmes have different requirements, such as students seeking admission to the BCom programme must not have Science and related subjects in Class 12.

Aside from that, a student must be hardworking and persistent in order to do well in the classroom. The two important aspects in ensuring improved results are consistency in the classroom and self-learning.

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) To drive better campus placements, we have a placements cell that is actively engaged in the following activities to ensure challenging roles and quality placements for our students:

- Regular industry interactions in the form of industry visits, guest lectures and motivational programmes facilitated by industry leaders

- Personality development training sessions facilitated by external trainers and agencies who specialise in this task

- Mock aptitude tests, group discussion sessions and personal interview rounds for final preparations

- Internship and live projects

- Value-added courses relative to their area of interest and industry requirement

- Feedback from companies and students placed to prepare the next batch

Being an Arts and Science institute we have companies coming up with a variety of profiles and responsibilities such as for Finance stream students we have companies like HCL, ATOS, TCS, Ford and Capgemini participating the campus placements; For IT roles we have TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, L&T Infotech actively participating in the placements season; Similarly for Healthcare and Pharma companies we have seen Zifo and AGS Health actively recruiting our students, etc.

As a part of key recruitment trends, we have observed that:

• Students are already aware if they want to participate in a particular company’s placement drive or not basis the detailed job description that is being shared in prior
• Companies conduct many competitions for final year and pre-final year students, and through proper monitoring and evaluation, successful students are offered job opportunities. These competitions have served their purpose by training the students during their college life and to find a suitable job when they pass out of college.
• Many companies follow Train & Hire method as well, in this method companies conduct an interview and after the selection of the candidate, a particular syllabus related to their prospective job is delivered through online mode and candidates are evaluated before they pass out the college, and are hired.
• Nowadays, many reputed companies expect the students to be trained well before the Interview in specific and prominent areas of their study. For example companies from the financial and IT sectors expect the candidates to possess knowledge regarding the latest terms & technologies. This pandemic has changed the interview methods and companies have switched over to online softwares, recruitment tools for their hiring needs.