Students here can get an opportunity to intern in Paris, IIFT Principal

In conversation with Shiksha.com, Principal Administration of IIFT Bangalore - Indian Institute of Fashion Technology Pawan Mullick talks about how the curriculum is planned every year. He also shares about the initiatives that the institute takes in order to stand apart from other institutes operating in the similar domain. Pawan has nearly four decades of rich teaching experience.

Read the excerpts of the interview below:

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

A: The three most important factors that help IIFT stand apart when compared to institutes in the similar field are:

• Excellent academic environment
• Result
• Placements

The institute is known for its quality education parameters.

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

A: The return on investment of any institute can be defined on the basis of placements opportunities. Students can secure better placements if they have up to date knowledge of the domain they are working into. We believe that education should not be constrained to four walls of classrooms. So, we organise frequent industrial visits for all semester students, Internship training in different garment, fabric manufacturing companies and regular lectures by experienced professionals from industries are giving our students real insight of industry. Students become more confident and industry ready on completion of academic sessions.

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

A: Desirable attributes of prospective students include knowledge of written and verbal English language and interest in Fashion field and drawing.

When a part of IIFT, we expect students to have regular attendance, participation in all practical classes, active involvement in the internship, expected performance in all internal and preparatory exams. These can help students secure good grades in the curriculum.

Q: What is it that helps your institution differentiate itself for this programme?

A: We emphasis more on practical exposure, additional and remedial classes for weak students and meticulously keeping track on students who undergo internship. We give students internship opportunity in Paris for a month that helps them experience global standards and trends of the Fashion industry. One month of internship in Paris gives immense confidence to the students.

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: The college has a fulltime dedicated Placement Cell, headed by an experienced Placement Officer. We have a great network of companies, industries, big retail outlets and manufacturers to give broad base to students. The college is constantly in touch with all these industries and has a well-planned placement program. These well-structured placement programme helps boost the placement statistics. Our placement officer regularly visits those industries which are already in panel. And, the institute also invites management experts and HR professionals of different departments from different industries.

The college conducts workshops for students to make them understand placement policy and prepare them for face to face interview sessions. Such workshops and sessions have made students more informative and students of our college are appreciated by most of the companies for their good soft skills.

The openings for our students with regard to placements are broad-based such as big retail outlets, merchandising, visual merchandising, designing, fabric manufacturing unit and garment manufacturing unit. The big retail outlets are emerging as Sunrise industries and on a regular basis have great potential for recruitment of BSc FAD students as junior fashion stylists.