Pearl Academy New Delhi Faculty Details & Reviews ,Rajouri Garden, Delhi

Our collaboration with top fashion associations helps students become industry ready, says Pearl Academy President

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, President at Pearl Academy Nandita Abraham talks about the students-centric and industry embedded curriculum. She elaborates various initiatives the institute has taken to match up industrial requirements. Nandita has over 20 years of rich industry and academic experience which acts as a competitive edge to the institute.

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: Pearl Academy has been a catalyst for the success of our students across creative industries for the past 27 years and this has been possible because of:

1. International Offerings: Every student at Pearl gets an opportunity to avail full scholarship for a four-week study trip to Europe or Canada. We also facilitate the enrolment of students for an International Bachelor’s degree from recognised institutions such as Nottingham Trent University in UK, the University of Derby or Manchester Metropolitan University in UK and Torrens University in Australia. Students can also avail 50 per cent fee waiver for pursuing their post-graduation courses from our International partner institutes. Additionally, our students get the exclusive opportunity to intern at events such as London Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week and participate in various international competitions such as Dubai Design Week, Asia Young Designer Award, Redress Design Awards and many more.
2. Pearl Total Learning System: We provide education that goes beyond the books and incorporates new-age learning methodologies for the holistic development of our students. Our 360-degree comprehensive learning model ensures that every student gets the right opportunity to develop skills. We have recently collaborated with Coursera to provide over 3,600 courses to our students to help them develop additional skill sets.
3. Careers: We have a placement record of 99 per cent with students working in various world-class organisations such as Accenture, IBM, Walt Disney, Capgemini, Anju Modi, Harpers Bazaar, Miss Malini, Shantanu and Nikhil, Godrej, Amazon and Louis Vuitton.

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

A: Besides our curriculum design and offerings which makes us stand out of all other fasion design institutes, Pearl has taken many initiatives to match up to the standards of industrial requirements. Few of them are listed below:

1. Industry Integrated Curriculum: Our curriculum involves industry experts throughout their creative journey right from the curriculum design to the students’ employment. It includes live industry projects, internships, collaborative projects with stalwarts, masterclasses, open labs, discussions, community projects and more.
2. Strong Alliances: Through our landmark alliances with the industry, we ensure that our students get the best exposure through guest lectures, workshops, exchange programmes and other opportunities. We have collaborations with the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), Adobe, Association of Designers of India (ADI), FICCI, EEMA, RAI and many more.Our alliance with the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) provides an opportunity for all graduating students to showcase their final projects at the India Fashion Week. We also provide students with the opportunity to have one-on-one interaction with industry leaders as part of our collaboration with the FDCI.
3. Industry Events: We encourage our students to participate in various events across the globe such as the New York Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, London Fashion, Graduate Fashion Week in London, Dubai Design week, Pune Design Festival and India Fashion Week to name a few.

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

A: Students should have a strong interest in the course that they choose. We encourage them to be curious, ask questions, ideate and create solutions. At Pearl, we do not focus on the grades but the learning curve of every student. Students are encouraged to attend masterclasses, participate in extra-curricular activities, enroll for Coursera and Business of Fashion courses and learn new skill sets. Students should collaborate with industry, participate in trans-disciplinary projects and make the most of this journey.

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

A: All our programmes are aimed at nurturing the leaders of tomorrow. Each course is specifically tailored to cater to their respective industries. We have industry experts as our Deans, Head of Departments and Faculty. These academic leaders make sure that all the courses are futuristic, disruptive, intellectual and innovative.

One special attribute in our postgraduate diplomas is that students from any undergraduate discipline are eligible to pursue them. Over the years, we have had many engineers, dentists and commerce students who have opted to pursue courses such as Product Design, Communication Design and Fashion Design.

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 have a strong placements team across India. We conduct HR round tables and sessions with students to help them understand the industry requirements.  Each student has a career mentor to guide them as they get ready to start their professional careers. 

The key trend is that in today’s world all the industries require designers to help ideate, collaborate and design solutions to problems and opportunities. So, companies such as IBM, Capgemini, Accenture, Walt Disney have been recruiting our students for the past couple of years.