Entrepreneurship Development Plan

The Entrepreneurship Development Cell (EDC) will be devised on the Campus soon. The preliminary works are going on. The interested students can enroll in EDC. The cell will expose students to the opportunities of Agri-Entrepreneurship through guest lectures, periodical exposure visits, participation in various Idea thon and Entrepreneurship related exhibitions and competitions. They get a platform to familiarise themselves with Business Incubators (preferably Agri-Business Incubators, TNAU) to scale up their ideas. After sensing their aptitude in Agri-Entrepreneurship, the students will form groups based to share ideas.

Seed Fund Scheme (SFS)

An amount of credit (one to two lakhs) without interest will be provided to an eligible group of 2 to 5 students (Third & Final years) to stimulate their interest in agri-entrepreneurship. An expert committee comprising Principal, PC Officers, and Subject experts will select the group based on their idea on agriculture, horticulture, farm machinery, livestock, fishery, post-harvest & value addition, marketing. The students can use KIA Farm. The Institute will provide technical support, land, threshing flour, storage godown, water, and other necessary items for producing goods free of cost in the initial stage. The students have to repay the amount within two years from the production year.

Entrepreneurship – Women

It aims to train the women graduates with a couple of entrepreneurship activities. The thrust areas in the plan are food processing, pulses, rice, and wheat flour making, papad making, masala, and pickles using the pieces of equipment in the institute. It also plans for a crash course on Women Entrepreneurship for six months or one year (150-200 hours per course).

Kumaraguru Institute of Agriculture successfully maintains a potent Placement Cell helping students to get placements in reputed firms. The Placement Cell plays a central role in locating job opportunities for the students passing out from the college. It keeps in touch with the firms and the industrial establishments and initiates the meeting of companies and our students.

The Placement Cell organizes career guidance programmes for all the students. It schedules and coordinates Training Programmes, Mock Interviews, Group Discussions, and Communication Skills workshops. The cell also organizes Public Service Exam Training for students who are interested in joining Government Sectors.

Objectives

• 1.Training the students to face the recruitment process.
• 2.Motivating the students to develop technical knowledge and soft skills.
• 3.Guiding the students in career planning and goal setting.
• 4.Inspiring the students to aspire for higher studies and to attend competitive exams such as ICAR-JRF, FCI, NABARD, CAT, TOEFL, GRE, UPSC, TNPSC, and the like Motivating the students to develop agro-based entrepreneurship skills.
• 5.Helping maximum number of students to clear the campus & off-campus interviews.

Career Development Activities

1.Guest lecture

KIA organises the Guest lectures of the experts from different fields (IAS, IPS, IFS, Entrepreneurs, and Bank Officials) monthly once. It opens a vast window of opportunities, creates interest, and motivates the students.

2.Noble vision

KIA scientists handle lectures about renowned agricultural scientists, reputed agricultural institutes, S&T breakthroughs, agricultural policies, and programme to familiarise students with these. The session is organised every week on Monday between 4.00 PM and 5.00 PM.

3.Study circle

It aims to assist students in selecting their subjects of interest for Post-Graduation in SAUs, ICAR Institutes and Foreign Universities, and other competitive exams. Students interact with Scientists every Wednesday evening.

3.Coaching classes

KIA Scientists provide special coaching for the ICAR- Junior Research Fellowship Exam during the evening hours free of cost. The classes are on the subjects like Plant Breeding and Genetics, Agronomy, Soil Sciences, Agricultural Chemistry, Plant Protection, Horticulture, and Social Sciences. Our institute joins hands with the Pioneer Coaching Institute, Erode, TIME, and Satya IAS Academy for providing coaching and guidance in Civil Services/ UPSC Exams, Bank Coaching – Special Officer (Agriculture) & PO, MBA/ PG Diploma Courses – CAT & CMAT and TOEFL / IELTS Exams. These institutes charge only a nominal fee from the students. The sessions are on weekends and holidays.

4.Workshops

The placement cell organises workshops for the final year students to improve their soft skills in the first week of February. It covers resume writing, group discussion, and personal interview.

5.Entrepreneurship Development – Training and Exposure

The leading agro-entrepreneurs are invited to the college periodically to motivate the students in agriculture and allied sectors. As part of this, the cell organised a single-day training on ‘Value Addition of Agricultural Crops’ for the final year students of the 2015-19 batch on the first week of May 2019.

6.Newspaper subscription

The Hindu daily newspaper is subscribed to all the students residing in the hostel. The employment newspaper is made available in the library.

7.Internships

The cell organises internships during summer to volunteer students in organic farming, value addition of millets, and dairy farms. The firms like ABT Industries Ltd., Pollachi; Raaki Eco Farm, Anthiyur, Erode; and Siruthuli – Miyawaki, Coimbatore take in students as interns.

8.Ideathon

Ideathon is a short, intensive, workshop-like experience for students to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. Participants work in teams and use design thinking and innovative learning practices to ideate and collaborate on possible solutions.

9.Group Discussion (GD) Forum

The Placement Officers mediates the Group Discussion Forum. It is held virtually in MS Teams at evening 7.30 every day. Final year and third-year students interested can participate in the discussion. Three burning topics are given daily before 1 PM for preparation. The topics for discussion are selected based on voting. The students discuss for 20 minutes.

10.Placement Status