Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Students urged to opt for add-on courses

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, SEPT. 10. Undergraduate students in arts and science colleges should take add-on courses to supplement their main subject of study, so that they would be better qualified for the job market, the Secretary, Department of Higher Education, K. Gnanadesikan, said here recently.

Inaugurating new courses sponsored by the University Grants Commission (UGC) at the Avinashilingam Deemed University, Mr. Gnanadesikan said that in Tamil Nadu alone, about one lakh graduates emerged from arts and science colleges every year, and needed jobs. Add-on courses would be an advantage in this respect.

For example, a B.A. History student could do additional diploma or certificate courses in tourism, museum and conservation, and travel and ticketing, so that he or she would have the necessary `skill sets' to take up a job soon after graduation. Students should also cultivate communication skills in widely-spoken languages such as English, so that they could easily fit into the global job market.

He said that there were four crore unemployed youth who were registered with employment exchanges around the country. In Tamil Nadu alone, the number was 40 lakhs.

Bright outlook

However, Indians were making their mark in foreign countries. Indian teachers, nurses and professionals in information technology were much in demand overseas. The outlook was bright, with major companies in the West outsourcing back office operations to India because of high productivity at low cost.

Moreover, the global entertainment media was constantly growing, with people watching at least two hours of television every day. Animation, graphics and multimedia were a multi-million dollar industry and offered several career openings.

Bio-informatics was another growing field that required multi-disciplinary knowledge. Most new jobs were likely to be in the services sector, especially in areas such as banking, insurance and retail sales management.

In his presidential address, the Chancellor, K. Kulandaivel, said that students were better placed with respect to jobs if they studied in an institution that offered work-oriented education. Double degree programmes were gaining importance. To make optimum use of educational resources, classes could be conducted in morning and evening shifts.

He said that the University had been able to help school dropouts pick up skill and confidence by joining courses offered by the Jan Sikshan Sansthan, and gain employment.

`Be flexible specialists'

The Vice Chancellor, M. Chandramani, said that quality education meant developing competence in students, in addition to enhancing knowledge. Students these days ought to be `flexible generalists' who were good at several subjects, rather than `specialists' who could concentrate only on one particular area of work. An adaptable workforce was an asset in the modern corporate world.

The UGC-sponsored courses inaugurated by the University were: B.Sc. Visual Communication; diploma courses in bio-informatics, and graphics and multimedia technology; and a certificate course in electronics.

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