Scrapping the Mass Placement | MCC’s Three-Year Blueprint for Future-Ready Talent ❤️

“Hire for Attitude, Train for Skills” | MCC’s Industry-Academia Engagement

Industry-Academia Conclave

7th March 2026 | A Report

Today MCC woke up to a pioneering initiative - the Industry-Academia Engagement, wherein academic leaders including Principals, Vice-Chancellors, Deans and Heads of Departments from across the city and the state had a rewarding rendezvous with HR Professionals and Corporate Honchos, based on the theme, Creating Future-Ready Talent: The New Paradigm of Recruitment and Industry Readiness.

The traditional model of resume-building and mass placement drives is being replaced by a more targeted, digital approach.

Companies are moving towards evaluating students through digital portfolios and verified digital badges starting from their first year, rather than relying solely on final-year resumes.

Addressing the issue of students sitting for generic placements without the intent to join, there is a strategic pivot toward "pre-placements." For example, the ongoing experiments within the Commerce department (sending students to companies like EY for pre-placements) are expected to yield a 70% to 80% conversion rate into full-time roles.

The event was structured to bridge the gap between academic preparation and industry expectations, focusing on -

1. Establishing Global Capability Centres (GCCs) for employability skills.

2. Learning by Doing: Experiential talent pipelines for students and employers.

3. The Talent Marketplace: Building visibility, credibility, and career readiness.

To bridge the gap between academic life and industry expectations, the panel outlined a structured, multi-year approach to student development -

Year 1 (Discovery): Utilising psychometric assessments and tools like Gallup StrengthsFinder to help students identify their true aptitudes and create personalised career tracks early on, moving away from peer or family pressure.

Year 2 (Capacity Building): Focusing on practical, interpretive skills rather than just theoretical knowledge. For instance, moving beyond basic software knowledge to advanced tools and teaching students how to interpret data and utilise predictive analytics.

Year 3 (Industry Readiness): Finalising the transition from student to professional by aligning their developed portfolios with specific industry needs.

A recurring theme among the industry panellists (GCCs and corporate leadership) was the mantra: “Hire for attitude, train for skills.”

Panelists felt that, technical skills can be taught after a student joins a company, but resilience, adaptability, and a positive attitude are prerequisites to combat high attrition rates.

Empathy and attitude must flow both ways. Mr. Mike Muralidharan, Chairman, Ethiraj College, Chennai shared an example illustrating how supportive, empathetic management naturally fosters intense loyalty and “reverse empathy” from employees during critical crunch times.

Successfully transitioning to this new model requires heavy involvement from the academic side.

Driving this change requires standard operating procedures (SOPs) developed directly from the lived experiences of faculty members and HODs, the panelists observed.

Faculty Development Programmes should evolve to include more case-study-oriented teaching methods to better prepare students for real-world industry scenarios. The traditional model of resume-building and mass placement drives is being replaced by a more targeted, digital approach.

Companies are moving toward evaluating students through digital portfolios and verified digital badges starting from their first year, rather than relying solely on final-year resumes.

Addressing the issue of students sitting for generic placements without the intent to join, there is a strategic pivot toward “pre-placements.” For example, the ongoing experiments within the Commerce department (sending students to companies like EY for pre-placements) are expected to yield a 70% to 80% conversion rate into full-time roles.

Session Breakdown

Panel 1 (10:25 AM to 11:45 AM)

This foundational panel focused on the shift from traditional mass recruitment to targeted talent acquisition, emphasizing digital portfolios, pre-placements, and the critical importance of hiring for attitude while training for skills.

Moderator: Dr. P. Wilson (Principal & Secretary, Madras Christian College)

Panellists

Mr. Mike Muralidharan (Chairman, Ethiraj College for Women)

Ms. J. Sabita (Global GCC Director HR, Zinnov)

Mr. Sathish Vaidyanathan (Vice President and Head - India, ACV Auctions)

Panel 2 (11:50 AM to 12:50 PM)

This session brought a strong governmental and systemic perspective to the discussion, exploring how state governance is engaging with academia and industry to facilitate skill development.

Moderator: Mr. Arun George Mathew (Vice President & GCC Lead, Guidance Tamil Nadu) & illustrious alumnus, MCC.

Panellists

Mr. Kranthi Kumar Pati, IAS (Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation)

Mr. Paul Arun (Chief of Staff & Senior Vice President, Guidance Tamil Nadu)

Mr. Kewyn George (Head of India GCC and AI Engineering, Expeditors International)

The Charter was then inaugurated as follows –

Bridging the gap between academia and industry has never been more critical. As academic leaders, we share a collective purpose: to nurture students who possess not only strong disciplinary knowledge but also the skills, character, and resilience required to thrive in the modern world.

To turn this commitment into action, we are adopting the Future-Ready Talent Charter. This framework ensures we align our teaching and institutional practices with the evolving expectations of the workplace through six key pillars.

Integrated Career Readiness: Embedding experiential learning directly within our academic design.

Discipline-Specific Pipelines: Mapping departmental competencies to real-world industry needs.

Early Skill Profiling: Introducing micro-credentials and skill tracking starting from Year 1.

Modern Talent Acquisition: Embracing emerging practices like hackathons and portfolio building.

Strategic Internships: Creating credit-based internship ecosystems that align perfectly with industry timelines.

Human Competencies: Strengthening essential soft skills and responsibility through service learning. 

Together, through deeper collaboration across institutions and industry, we pledge to build a generation of graduates who are confident, capable, and ready for the future of work. 

MCC’s Industry-Academia Engagement has indeed set a new benchmark for student employability. By adopting a structured three-year roadmap - from early aptitude discovery to advanced capability building - and shifting the focus to “hiring for attitude,” academia and industry are co-creating a much stronger talent pipeline.

Ultimately, then, bridging the campus-to-corporate gap isn’t just about teaching new software; it’s about fostering resilience, empathy, and true industry-readiness. And for this, it is imperative on the part of academic leaders to drive this change by integrating real-world case studies and industry-aligned standard operating procedures into their teaching.

A rewarding day in every way!