M. Venkateshwaran has been working as the Placement Officer and Secretary of Sri Annai Kamakshi Music and Fine Arts College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He has done MA, M.Phil. and PGDCFS as part of his academics and is specialized in English Literature. He has 4 years of experience in the Administration and Teaching domain. Being the Placement Secretary and Officer at Sri Annai, he is responsible for monitoring day-to-day routine office work, maintaining accounts of the college. Apart from this, he needs to coordinate with the Department Head and act as a liaison between staff, students and their parents, organize and maintain records and files, compile and organize information and materials for meetings and decision-making, safeguards the confidentiality and integrity of information and ensures that all files and records are well organized so that all authorized parties may easily access it whenever required. 

Sri Annai Kamakshi Music And Fine Arts College

Being a Placement Officer and Secretary, what are your responsibilities towards the students?

"Conducting training programs for students to prepare them for placement is my main objective"

Being a Placement Secretary of the college, I am a very important medium of communication between our students and industry partners. And providing proper training to students including mock interviews and technical learning sessions as per industry standards and requirements, addressing their placement related queries and helping them to face recruitment drives more confidently also comes under the scope of my responsibility. 

How do you establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty?

"By addressing their queries on individual basis and being a good listener and trusted person"

I believe in one-on-one interaction with the students, because then my attention will not be distributed among multiple students and students can open up about their issues without any fear, and I can resolve doubts and issues of my students more effectively and on a timely basis. And while interacting with students, I tell them about the achievement and struggle of their seniors so they can learn something from their seniors' experiences. Apart from this, I encourage them to have a positive approach towards everything. And when it comes to my fellow faculty, I ensure an environment of openness, trustworthy and respectful communication and we all work as a team to maintain a cordial relationship between each other.

What are some of the greatest strengths of your college and how can it be enhanced?

"Our students and faculty members makes us strong and resilient"

Our students are our main source of strength as they are the driving force of all the practices and activities of our institution. Next comes our highly qualified and experienced faculty members who are ethically strong too and add to the robustness of our college. And these sources of strengths I believe can be enhanced by consistently supporting, helping them and guiding them in the right direction to help them achieve greater successes.

How does your college enhance the faculty skills and prepare them as per industry standards?

"They are trained through expert lectures, workshops and industry interaction sessions"

For the purpose of upskilling faculty members and educating them about latest technological developments, our college regularly organizes guest lectures in collaboration with reputed industry experts and academicians. And they also attend various workshops, update themselves to the latest industry standards and then share the knowledge with the students. Also with the help of MOUs our college has signed with top tier film companies, training is conducted to enhance faculty skills as per their requirements and in accordance with industrial standards. 

How do you introduce a practical and industry driven approach towards subjects?

"By arranging training programs and internships for students and assigning real time projects to them"

We have allocated a mentor on an individual basis to each student who can guide and support them whenever they get stuck somewhere with their studies or career planning. And apart from the course curriculum, we organize symposiums, academic and non-academic events along with contests for the students to enrich their knowledge and help them gain practical experience. From the first year itself, our students take up internships every semester in various companies to gain hands-on work experience. In addition to this, we encourage our students to develop socially beneficial innovative projects based on their domain of interest and appreciate the best ones with attractive prizes. Students are also taken on industrial visits to various arts works every semester, where they gain knowledge about the production work culture, ethics and technologies used by those industries.

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Which extracurricular activities are organized by your institute to enhance the skills of students?

"Symposiums, value added courses, and social awareness programs are arranged by us"

Our students are highly encouraged to indulge in extra-curricular activities and programs as we believe, these co-curricular activities help them in their holistic development. Keeping the same thing in mind, we have enabled Japanese language courses for students in the first year which is also an added advantage for placements. Apart from this, the technical symposium which is also an annual event of our college and is conducted by the third-year students of every department helps them to learn how to organize, manage and conduct an event in a real-world scenario. ‘Ecube’ and ‘Societal Beneficial Innovation’ events are also organized annually for the students to showcase their talents. 

What challenges are you facing to uplift the education quality of your department?

"Establishing good research facilities in college and creating an attitude of self-learning in students is a challenge"

We are facing a wide variety of challenges at different levels and most prominent of them are limited scope for subject concepts exploration and research activities. Along with this, preparing students to work on real time projects after classes and creating a self-learning attitude in them by enhancing the college atmosphere are some other major issues we need to address on an immediate basis.

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Any valuable advice which you would like to give to the students for a prosperous career ahead?

"Give your best efforts in whatever work you do"

I would like to advise my students to give their best in whatever they do, be it a simple test or a major project. Because honest efforts and a never-stop learning attitude will help them achieve great success in the long run.