Highlights

BEST PRACTICES

 

INSTITUTIONAL BEST PRACTICES

 

BEST PRACTICE – I

1. Title of the Practice

TRAINING, PLACEMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP DRIVE

 

2. Objectives of the Practice

  • To act as a conduit between prospective employers and the Institute
  • To support students achieve hands-on live industrial / hospital training & Internships
  • To create opportunities for students to get employment
  • To create a mechanism where business houses can intimate their human resource needs to the students and the college can prepare students according to their requirements
  • To act as a facilitator in fulfilling the students’ job aspirations, thereby contributing to attainment of Institutional mission and addition of skilled manpower of the society
  • To empower students to become future job creators through Entrepreneurship

 

3. The Context

The primary goal of maximum students seeking admission in professional colleges is securing a reputed job as the majority come from middle or lower middle class backgrounds.  Thus, the objective of educating them is to train them to make them industry / job ready.  The Training & Placement (T&P) cell of the college is geared to fulfill this aspiration of the students.  The Institute recognized this need of the society and has, therefore, kept T&P as one of the core values in its mission statements. The cell concentrates its efforts in connecting to employers, grooming students as per job descriptions and supporting them through the entire process of securing employment through on- or off-campus interviews. It has developed ties with several employers in achieving maximum placement for our students.

The Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell) tries to inculcate the spirit and skills of entrepreneurship to make the students future job creators.

 

4. The Practice

  • The Training & Placement Officer (TPO) of the college describes the T&P activities and process of the college to the new students during the Induction Program after the Director and Principal orients them regarding the multitude of avenues available for Pharmacy Graduates and Post-graduates.
  • Right from second year B. Pharm, the training officer would start liaison with hospitals and industries throughout the state and country-wide to secure training slots for students.  T&P cell also facilitates the logistics and stay of the students near the training sites via informal contact with industry HRs and alumni.
  • In the beginning of final year, the TPO interacts and collects students’ preferences for job preferences (Production, R&D, QA/QC, marketing, academia, Pharmacovigilance, etc.) and also higher education inclination for segregating and focusing on the job-aspirants.  This helps in planning for placement drive of that academic year. The students’ data required for presenting to prospective employers is collected from individual students and digitized in the database for easy retrieval and transmission to prospective employers.
  • During this time, the students are coached to create professional CVs, interview skills, GD etiquette, corporate aptitude, etc., through grooming sessions conducted by the TPO, English & Communication Skill Faculty as well as other faculty having appropriate domain knowledge.
  • During the penultimate semester, TPO and his team of associates at the City Office of the Society starts planning for on- and off-campus or pooled campus drives.  The T&P cell will keep contact with HR managers and other key personnel of reputed industries throughout the year to ensure the companies come for campus drive to our college.
  • On receiving vacancy information from the prospective employers, the eligible CVs from the database are forwarded to the company for short-listing and interviews.
  • The employers are invited for pre-placement talks and the entire process of interview is supported and conducted by the T&P cell, hand-holding the students throughout the entire placement process.
  • Several companies conduct multiple rounds of selection process and TPO and his team will supervise the entire process, guiding the students at each stage.
  • The E-Cell, in association with Wadhani Foundation, is a part of National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) and enables students from 2nd year onwards to be a member who are skilled in the nuances of entrepreneurship through various programs and courses. The information dissemination starts from 1st year right from the Induction Program.

 

5. Evidence of Success

  • The college measures its success index in terms of total number of students securing employment and going for higher education. In this context, there has been a steady increase in both for the last 5 years.
  • The year-round efforts of the T&P drive and the quality of pass-out students is evident from many employers returning for campus drive in successive years.
  • Positive and encouraging feedback from the employers of our students.
  • Our Training & Placement Drive has become our USP as is evident from ever increasing enquiry for admission from guardians, improving perception among stakeholders including the employers and has been a chief factor in the college acquiring NBA accreditation and its consecutive appearance in the list of Top 100 colleges of Pharmacy in India as per NIRF 2020 and 2021 rankings.
  • Several reputed companies such as Cipla, Wockhardt, Raptakos Brett, Cognizant, Wipro, TCG Lifesciences, Alkem, Macleods, Fresenius Kabi, Zydus Cadila, Troikaa, Lupin, Torrent, Medreich, Apollo, Hetero Drugs, Sun Pharma, Nestle, and many others have employed our graduates and post-graduates repeatedly.
  • From 2016 onwards, the E-Cell has produced few entrepreneurs and innovators who are doing well (Mr. Kalidas Acharya, Infuno Technologies, Mr. Tunir Sahoo, received AICTE award for Drone based Mist dispersal system).

 

6. Problems Encountered and Resources Required

  • Lack of flourished pharmaceutical industries in the state
  • Lacunae of English proficiency among students of vernacular medium and those coming from rural backgrounds.
  • Many industries from outside the state preferring local candidates, thereby limiting prospects of our students
  • Some students have the inclination of not leaving their native place leading to loss of opportunity and career growth
  • Students often show vacillating job preference as a result of which they might not join the company even after getting placement. This leads to negative image of the college that the T&P cell has to fight hard to alleviate.
  • In a few cases, a company which had recruited in mass from us faced huge attrition leading to denial of campus drive with us the next year.
  • During the pandemic, it was very difficult to get consent from industries for training slots.
  • Students lack awareness and they need further motivation to imbibe the essence of Entrepreneurship.

 

7. Notes (Optional)

The college believes that in future for nation building, student focus should be shifted from job-seekers to job-creators.  The E-Cell needs to be more active to achieve that goal. However, practical experience shows that the due to the socioeconomic background, the fabric of entrepreneurship will need hard toil to be successful.

 

 

 

BEST PRACTICE - II

 

 

1. Title of the Practice

MENTOR – MENTEE SYSTEM

 

2. Objectives of the Practice

  • To build bridges between the mentor and the mentee.
  • To monitor the academic and co-curricular performance of the students.
  • To support students for their holistic development.
  • To enable support and professional learning environment.
  • To stimulate, inspire and guide students for higher learning and competitive examinations in higher studies and employment.
  • To support students in psychological, health, personal and other related issues with empathy.
  • To be a single point of contact for parents for their wards’ progression.
  • To enable a congenial and harmonious environment for the academic and professional development of the college.

 

3. The Context

Students coming from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds find it difficult to adjust to the new environment upon admission.  Assigning mentors for them leads to devoting a “guardian away from home” for their academic, personal, social, mental, financial and other issues that usually arise for the young mentees in their teens. A mentor is a caring advisor who willingly invests her/his time and energy to know the students better and guide them for their academic, professional and personal growth. This develops a lasting bond between the mentor and mentee, thereby leading to improved learning environment and a synergistic development for all. Further, parents are also stressed as to well-being and progression of their child in the new environment, which is alleviated through constant connection with the mentors.  This bridges the gap between the college and the students and their family leading to better outcome for all stakeholders.

 

4. The Practice

  • Mentors are assigned to students upon admission at a ratio of 1 mentor to 20-25 mentees.
  • Mentees are introduced to their mentors during the Induction Program.  Mentors will brief the mentees regarding college code of conduct, syllabus, university and examination rules, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities of the college, and other details along with the purpose of the Mentor-Mentee system during this period.
  • Mentors are assigned to the mentees for their entire tenure in the college to enable building long-lasting bond and understanding between them.
  • The contact details of the Mentors will be communicated to mentees and their parents and the guardians are encouraged to keep in touch with the mentors for any issue.
  • Mentors are tasked to keep in touch with their mentees and their parents and act as “single point of contact” for all matters related to academics, professional and personal issues.
  • Once assigned, the mentors create WhatsApp groups to enable continuous communication with their mentees.  Additionally, they are in touch with mentees through email and telephonic mode.  The parents are briefed primarily through telephonic mode.
  • For this purpose, at the time of admission, a specially designed Mentee Form is filled by the students and their guardians, which becomes the template for benchmarking the progression of the student in the college.  The data is continuously updated in Mentee file by the mentors.  This becomes a record of progression of the students during their study with us.
  • Mentors will call mentor-mentee meetings at regular intervals to assess their academic progression and problems, empathically listen and try to solve any extra-academic issues their mentees are facing.
  • Apart from the usual channels of communication, the mentors also act as an additional and perhaps the most effective mode of dissemination of information and guidance to their mentees regarding academic matters, examinations, class tests, Mandatory Additional Requirements (MAR) of the University, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities participation, fees related matters, scholarships, hostel, job and career prospects, personal issues (such as psychological, medical problems) and any other issues that the mentee might like to discuss.
  • The mentors are usually helpful in identifying weak and bright students that helps in supporting them accordingly.
  • Overall, the Mentor-Mentee system enables a holistic development of the mentee and life-long bonding is supposed to evolve between mentor and mentee to enable a congenial and harmonious learning environment at the college.

 

5. Evidence of Success

  • Students’ discipline has improved
  • More students are availing scholarship schemes
  • Parents remain updated and happy about their ward’s progression
  • Participation in co- and extra-curricular activities have improved
  • MAR score has significantly increased indicating improved sensitivity of students’ to social issues
  • Dropout cases have diminished
  • Career choice have moved from marketing to more technical jobs and newer avenues such as Pharmacovigilance
  • Increasing number of students are opting for higher studies through GPAT and other All-India level competitive examinations
  • Students are increasingly going for hospital, Pharmacovigilance and industrial training
  • During the pandemic, financial problems faced by a few students could be identified and solved with the help of faculty contributions
  • Different sensitive issues that could have snowballed into bigger troubles could be identified and solved at the origin
  • The teaching-learning environment has improved and is congenial and harmonious

 

6. Problems Encountered and Resources Required

  • Compact schedule and time constraint makes it difficult for the mentor to devote additional time to the mentees
  • New mentees and their family are not always responsive to the system
  • Young or new faculty need to be trained better for the success of the system
  • Due to pandemic, face to face meetings could not be held

 

7. Notes (Optional)

The success of Mentor-Mentee system requires voluntary enthusiasm from faculty, student and their family.  The sensitivity of the Indian society is not yet up to the level for all round success of the system.  The UHV program of the AICTE is right step to sensitize the teacher community towards better implementation of the system.