With a focus on Internationalism, entrepreneurship and employability, Pearly Academy has come a long way in design education since its inception in 1993. India’s leading institution in design, fashion, and media, Pearl Academy offers over 30 uniquely designed undergraduate, postgraduate and professional development pathways through its campuses in Delhi, Noida, Jaipur and Mumbai.
Chief human resources and strategy officers from leading global organizations opines that the skill of creativity will be a necessary asset for anyone working in 2020, in all levels of a small to large business, from admin assistants to CEOs. Nandita Abraham, President, Pearl Academy, says, “While new domains will keep on emerging, creativity will hold the forte. The World Economic Forum has identified creativity as one of the top 3 skills required in the future along with complex problem solving and critical thinking and I completely agree with this finding. The Future of Work report says that 60 percent of the new age jobs will fall under analytics, design and artificial intelligence.” A catalyst for success of the students across the creative industries, Pearl Academy has completed more than two decades of empowering creative minds. The institute is a pioneer in the Indian market, combining hybrid blended learning and real time lectures in a structured manner, thus making learning more effective and engaging.
“We were set up by the industry and the industry is involved in all the processes that we have. We have 30 uniquely designed undergraduate, post-graduate and professional development pathways which are all developed after consultation with the industry,” shares Nandita. Understanding the need gaps, Pearl Academy involves industry at every stage – right from the conceptualization of the product offering to curriculum design, its delivery in the classroom, and selection of faculty to intake of students and so on. Nandita adds, “We have an agile curriculum that is developed after taking input from the faculty and the industry. All faculty members are industry experts with rich experience and well trained in their respective domains.”
Live projects, masterclasses, industry visits, internships are part of a student’s learning journey at Pearl Academy over the period of four years. This is owing to our alliances with various Industries and businesses that provide students with relevant exposure. “When a student is about to graduate, we call back the industry in the classroom to make students understand what their professional work in the initial months would look like to make them understand the nuances of the professional field and make them 100 percent industry ready,” pinpoints Nandita. In the previous academic year, a total of 739 out of 1327 students of Pearl Academy opted for placements. Out of 739, 733 students found placement in leading companies across India. Some of these companies include Accenture, Capgemini, Walt Disney, Future Group, H&M, ITC, IBM, Amazon, Times of India and many more.
“We have been awarded by a leading industry body, ASSOCHAM as the best design institute in the country for the last four years in a row and we have had 99 percent placement record last year. I feel the right industry collaboration is a must to deliver the promise of creating industry ready professionals,” opines Nandita. Some examples of Pearl Academy’s collaboration with industry include FDCI, where 60 percent of the students are guided by leading designers of the country. It also gives the students a platform to showcase their collections annually at the fashion week in front of the industry. “Another important partnership we have is that with Asian Paints under which students are taught a new module on trends and techniques in colour. Our alliance with Adobe has helped in the launch of ‘Adobe Digital Technology Academy’ – a unique program designed to help learners of today leverage the power of digital technologies and tools for skill building,” explains Nandita.
The students of Pearl Academy also work with the Association of Designers (ADI) on various projects aimed towards Making Design Visible in our society today. Being a member of industry bodies like FICCI, ASSOCHAM and CII also help the institute to informed and updated on the latest developments across various sectors. “At Pearl Academy, we encourage young learners to dream, think big and work with them closely on how to fulfil those dreams. We provide an education that goes beyond the books and incorporates new-age learning methodologies for the holistic development of our students,” pinpoints Nandita. The faculty members of Pearl Academy always encourage the students to do multi-disciplinary projects, think out of the box and solve the real problems of the world today. This, in turn, leads to innovation and new ways of thinking. Nandita adds, “Open Labs are spaces built in the curriculum to encourage and support multi-disciplinary learning experiences. These give students the opportunity to explore exciting interventions in the area of interest apart from their curricular inputs. These inputs can either be domain related or additional inputs in their area of interest. The aim of the Open Lab is to bring relevant knowledge to the students and further enrich their learning experience.”
Today, 50 percent of the students at Pearl Academy become entrepreneurs within 3 years of graduating from the institute. All students undergo an entrepreneurship module and are encouraged in projects developing their own business ideas. Pearl Academy has also tied up with Amazon India to promote alumni who are entrepreneurs and they go through rigorous training to ensure they are successful. Some of the successful ventures started by students of Pearl Academy include – Kriti Tula’s Doodlage, Nikhil Mehra’s Shantanu & Nikhil, Teresa Laisom and Utsav Pradhan’s Munkee See Munkee Doo; Vaishali Studio by Vaishali Shadangule; Mandira Wirk; Sumiran Kabir Sharma’s Anaam; THREE by Pallavi Dhyani; Karleo by Leon Vaz and Karan Berry; Rimzim Dadu; House of Torani by Karan Torani; Aastha Narang; Jayati Goenka among many others.
Talking about the old students, Nandita says, “One of our students I am particularly proud of is Rohan Chabbra, an alumnus of 2008 batch who is currently working as a Senior Designer at Ralph Lauren for Purple Label, Polo Performance and Special Projects in New York City. I am also proud of Pragya Prasun, our business alumnus, who despite being an acid attack survivor bounced back with great strength and grit and is working towards employability for acid attack survivors. She recently received the Naari Shakti award by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.”
Recognized by Business of Fashion as the only Indian institute to be amongst the top 25 colleges in the world, undoubtedly, Pearly Academy is a leading institute in design, fashion, business and media. The institute recently announced the launch of Bengaluru campus, which will be the fifth campus of Pearly Academy in India. Last year, the institute had announced the launch of a new school – School of Media. It educates students on all aspects of digital and new age media so that all avenues of storytelling can be explored across platforms.
Nandita Abraham, President
Nandita Abraham is an energetic leader who works with a mission to keep students at the centre of all initiatives. With over 25 years of experience across corporates and academia in the US, Hong Kong and India, Nandita joined Pearl Academy in 2001 as a faculty. Over the years, she has worked successfully at various positions within the academy. Nandita has a ‘Masters in science’ from Philadelphia University, PG Certificate in Higher Education from Nottingham Trent University, PG Diploma from NIFT, Delhi and Bachelors in Economics from St Joseph’s College in Bangalore.