The quaint coastal town of Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, has an Engineering college, Arts college, BEd college, Pharmacy college and Polytechnic institute — all under the banner of the EGS Pillay Group of Institutions. What started as an effort to provide education to the underprivileged students of the district is now catering to many more across Tamil Nadu.
Dr G S Pillay, who founded the Trust with 75 per cent of his lifelong savings, envisioned a future where no one has to struggle to attain education like he had to when he was young. "It is my father's vision that we are trying to fulfil," says Dr S Paramesvaran, Secretary, EGSP Group of Institution. "Since most of our students are the first in their family to attend college, a lot of our time is spent in making them understand the importance of education and helping them pick the right course for them to pursue. This helps in holistic development," he adds.
But unlike most colleges, their approach for keeping up with the times and skilling their engineering graduates with new (and necessary) skills that have a market value in the industry is a bit different. They did not want to only teach students these skills but the teachers as well so that they knew the skills well enough to teach their students. "We also have the Centre of Excellence model under which the recruiters' interview and select students in their pre-final year and the final year's curriculum is set by the industry professionals themselves," says Dr S Chandrasekar, CEO of the group. "Our teachers not go through regular refresher courses but have to work with the industries 15 days a year. This helps them understand what the industry needs at a given year and also allows them the opportunity to upgrade their skills as well," he adds.
What makes the group of institutions stand out is their approach towards the society they serve. "We are not here to make money. Our main motto is to serve the underprivileged. We did a campaign to spread awareness about traffic rules and what happens if you do not follow them. We ran the campaign in various schools nearby and the response was stupendous," says T Vijayasundaram, Director of the group. "We also ran a campaign where we distributed helmets to riders," adds S Shankar Ganesh, a Trust Member.
