Hailing from a modest village in Gujarat, 26-year-old Kirti Tapodhan, a student of the National Institute Fashion and Technology (NIFT) Srinagar has made it to Turkey’s Istanbul after clicking a high-salary job.
Tapodhan got his placement in Knitology Turkey this year as he, along with his batch mates, graduated from the Institute. He has been offered the job worth Rs 30 lakh per-annum (LPA).
Tapodhan joined NIFT Srinagar in 2018 to pursue his four year degree in Fashion Designing (FD) at the Institute. In a chat with Greater Kashmir , Tapodhan said the basics that he learnt about fashion designing at NIFT Srinagar laid a base to fetch him the high-salary job.
“We learnt digital software in the foundation year (first-second semester) at NIFT. After that it depends how a student can explore the opportunities and fetch a job,” he said.
“We were taught around three to four software programs in the first year of our degree which helped me a lot while applying for the jobs,” he said.
The journey of the Gujarat boy has been a mixture of struggle, new experiences and opportunities. Before joining NIFT Srinagar, Tapodhan was pursuing his engineering at Dhirubhai college. “But I was never interested in Engineering. I could not convince my parents (for designing) till I completed my six semesters,” he said.
However, after so many attempts he finally succeeded to motivate his parents and applied for FD course and was allotted NIFT Srinagar.
“At NIFT my focus was majorly on pattern making, garment construction which was all computer based. Since I was from a computer background, I could grasp all the computer based designing easily,” he told Greater Kashmir.
Tapodhan is not the only student who has grabbed plum job in Turkey. Two other students of fashion designing have got prized jobs as well. Notably, the NIFT Srinagar has a full-fledged placement which has maintained a good reputation with the companies all over the world.
The NIFT has been able to place 65 percent of its outgoing students in different companies.
“Not only do we help in placement of the outgoing students, we also maintain a track record of those outgoing students who do not get the jobs anywhere. As and when we find a job, we share the profile of these students with the companies,” said Vijay Kanth Verma, head of the Fashion Communication department who is also the Regional Industry Coordinator (RIC) of NIFT Srinagar.
The companies have hired students across its two programs including Bachelors in Fashion Design (FD) and Bachelors in Fashion Communication (FC). Aditi Dange, a student from FC class 2021, received the pay package of 10 LPA. Another student from FC, Manya Garg was offered a similar package. Garg works for Reliance Brands Limited, while Dange works for Wipro Limited.
“Around 3000 students have graduated from 17 campuses of NIFT and we have been able to generate 3800 vacancies in different companies for placement of students,” Verma said.
Meanwhile, talking to Greater Kashmir, Director NIFT Srinagar Dr. Javid Ahmad Wani said the country’s NIFT is one of the leading fashion schools in the world. He said the Textile and Apparel industry has been showing keen interest in NIFT graduates.
“With the incorporation of emerging subjects like AR and VR in our curriculum, our graduates are well equipped to take diverse job roles in the industry,” he said. He said it was immensely satisfying to see success stories like Kirti Tapodian coming out of NIFT Srinagar.
“Hard Work of our faculty is producing good results,” he said.