From Partnership to Placement: Techno Smile and SRM University-AP Chart a Career Pathway to Japan
An industry-academia partnership earns its worth not in the signing of an agreement, but in what follows it. For SRM University-AP, a collaboration first formalised with Techno Smile, a Japanese technology enterprise, has in the space of...
An industry-academia partnership earns its worth not in the signing of an agreement, but in what follows it. For SRM University-AP, a collaboration first formalised with Techno Smile, a Japanese technology enterprise, has in the space of a few months moved well past ceremony and into placement, giving eighteen of its engineering students their first foothold in a career abroad, with many more expected to follow.
Dr Vinayak Kalluri, Registrar, SRM University-AP, with TechnoSmile leadership, university leaders and students from the Placement Drive
Techno Smile conducted a two-day job fair on SRM AP campus, on September 10 and 11. Through this initiative, seventeen engineering students from the University's 2027 Destination Japan graduating batch were selected for international career tracks, the first tangible milestone toward the fifty opportunities promised for 2028. This success stems from a collaboration formally set in motion on June 2, when a delegation from Techno Smile visited the SRM AP campus to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the University, signed on behalf of the institution by Dr Vinayak Kalluri, Registrar of SRM University-AP. It laid the foundation for what both sides described as a long-term collaboration, with Techno Smile setting out an ambitious vision, to create fifty career opportunities for SRM AP engineering students by 2028.
That commitment was carried forward on August 6, when Mr Sankar Karunanidhi, Country Manager at SRM Global Consulting Pvt Ltd, travelled to Techno Smile's Aichi Head Office in Nagoya to meet Mr Ryoma Yoshinaga, Managing Executive Officer of the company's Technology Business Division, and Mr Syuntaro Suzuki, Deputy Head of the same division. Their discussions centred on the practical steps needed to turn the partnership's early promise into a functioning hiring pipeline for SRM AP students.
