<p>Aligned with the actions to protect the integrity and reputation of your institution, it’s important to set students and alumni up for success by providing them with beneficial tools, resources and opportunities. Issuing authorities need to take the vital steps to set their students, alumni and selves apart from the rest of the education arena. </p>
<p>In the second part of our three-part interview series with Apurva Tandon, Global Director of Operations of the DataFlow Group, we discuss how issuing authorities can continue to support their alumni post-graduation and the importance of these actions for the institution’s reputation and future.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="568" src="https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/06/Col-Apurva-Tandon-2-1-1-1024x568.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-11838" srcset="https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/06/Col-Apurva-Tandon-2-1-1-1024x568.jpg 1024w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/06/Col-Apurva-Tandon-2-1-1-300x167.jpg 300w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/06/Col-Apurva-Tandon-2-1-1-768x426.jpg 768w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/06/Col-Apurva-Tandon-2-1-1.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Apurva Tandon, Global Director of Operations, DataFlow Group</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Interview Participants</h2>
<h3>Apurva Tandon</h3>
<p>Global Director of Operations</p>
<h3>Susan Kilty (SK)</h3>
<p>Interviewer</p>
<h2>SK: In an increasingly competitive war on talent, how can education institutions ensure that their alumni have a competitive advantage over their peers during the hiring process?</h2>
<h5><strong>Apurva Tandon</strong></h5>
<p>”The biggest help that any issuing authority can provide to their alumni, apart from a good education, is to help their alumni find good employment. Once they have educated the students, it’s now time for employers to come and hire their students. Issuing authorities (IAs) spend a lot of money and effort organizing job fairs and campus placements to assist alumni in securing their first jobs. There is no focus on how IAs can provide their alumni with a competitive advantage over their peers because the attitude is that they are no longer the IAs responsibility. Some IAs don’t want to invest in creating opportunities for their alumni to stand out in a competitive landscape. </p>
<p>IAs are very happy that, for the first time, somebody is trying to help out their alumni who they’ve lost touch with over time. We reach out to IAs with a TrueProfile.io strategic collaboration through which we help their students or alumni stand out among their peer group by having a digital CV. </p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://lp.trueprofile.io/verify-university-applicants/" target="_blank">IAs that have signed up </a>to TrueProfile.io understand the strength of the process, the advantage that it incurs and the relationship that they can establish with their alumni, the reconnection to the alma mater. The alumni become part of this ecosystem of opportunities where they are now being searched out by global employers through the user-friendly <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://lp.trueprofile.io/recruit-medical-staff-free-trial/" target="_blank">TrueProfile.io recruitment tool</a>. Alumni become part of an exclusive group of professionals who will always remain updated around global employment opportunities and keep getting exciting offers to enroll in online training and other benefits. </p>
<p>Alumni get the opportunity to upskill themselves, self-educate at a very competitive cost and improve their digital CV to stand out among the crowd. So it’s a huge advantage for the alumni, which the issuing authorities have started to realize. That’s why when we reach out to an IA, it’s almost a 100% success rate. There’s hardly been an issuing authority who has refused to sign up with us or who hasn’t shown interest in onboarding.”</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="535" src="https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/07/shutterstock_1800122434-1024x535.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-11891" srcset="https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/07/shutterstock_1800122434-1024x535.jpg 1024w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/07/shutterstock_1800122434-300x157.jpg 300w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/07/shutterstock_1800122434-768x401.jpg 768w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/07/shutterstock_1800122434.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>“The biggest help that any issuing authority can provide to their alumni, apart from a good education, is to help their alumni find good employment.”</figcaption></figure>
<h2>SK: Some issuing authorities only award hard copies of degrees. How can TrueProfile.io verify these credentials and give them similar opportunities to institutions that award digital degrees?</h2>
<h5><strong>Apurva Tandon</strong></h5>
<p>”Even in the remotest of third-world countries, IAs are trying to digitize their records because they realize the importance of giving their students verifications, something which is mandated. IAs have to create an ecosystem internally to do this properly without having somebody sitting with files and doing it completely manually. There are IAs who like to award physical degrees with fanfare and a formal ceremony because that’s part of the culture of the issuing authority and even the students want to celebrate their graduation with caps and gowns as it’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of an event. </p>
<p>As far as TrueProfile.io’s verification purposes are concerned, it does not make any difference to us because the alumni can upload a scanned document or send a link to their digital certificate for verification. </p>
<p>IAs who are signed up to tools like <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://digiflow.net/" target="_blank">DigiFlow</a> have a seamless online process to verify credentials because if they already issue digital certificates, they will have a report of them. With DigiFlow, once you get a verification request, IAs open the record, check for the individual, find the exact degree awarded by the IA and the degree that has been uploaded by DigiFlow, compare the two degrees and verify it. It’s that simple!”</p>
<h3>This is part two of our three-part interview series with Apurva Tandon. Read the other two interviews here:</h3>
<p><strong>Part 1: </strong><a href="https://www.trueprofile.io/partner/resources/interview-with-apurva-tandon-part-1-of-3-the-rise-and-impact-of-academic-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Rise and Impact of Academic Fraud</a></p>
<p><strong>Part 3: </strong><a href="https://www.trueprofile.io/partner/resources/interview-with-apurva-tandon-part-3-of-3-the-future-and-benefits-of-verification-for-issuing-authorities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Future and Benefits of Verification for Issuing Authorities</a></p>
<p>With the prevalence of fraud within the admissions process, TrueProfile.io <a href="https://www.trueprofile.io/partner/resources/6-ways-to-safeguard-your-hiring-process-from-academic-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">protects your university’s integrity</a> and reputation with our pre-admission verifications. To verify students’ academic backgrounds and mitigate risk during your admissions process, register your interest with us <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://lp.trueprofile.io/verify-university-applicants/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>