To be educated does not necessarily mean that you should possess a degree or post graduation certificate. Knowing the basics in any job is the need of the hour. And that is where professional courses play a big part.
Professional courses nowadays are in demand. It is because once a student completes his course he is ready to take up a job in his area of study. Our Vice Chancellor, Prof Varun Sahni, only recently was explaining the benefits of B Vocs or Bachelor in Vocational streams. Vocational streams like auto repairing, tailoring or an electrician course can find you a job almost immediately. If not, you can start off on your own, something what many of our youngsters are doing in order to be their own bosses and live their life as they please.
There are a number of professional courses which can take you places. Today apart from professional degrees such as Medicine, Engineering, Architecture or Pharmacy, there are a number of other professional courses which a student can opt for. Take the example of a degree in mass communication. The course is designed to offer a relevant need based program to educate students for significant careers in the media world. During the academic year the students work on assignments in the fields of reporting, writing, editing and using presentation skills. The unique mass media syllabus equips students with a sound foundation of different skill sets- be it print journalism, broadcast, advertising, or public relations. With the broad exposure which the students receive, they are well trained to specialise in their chosen field.
Then there are other courses which are away from the mainstream such as the Bachelor of Social work where the curriculum ensures that the students are fully equipped with skills to face the challenges of the changing social environment. Apart from academics, students are also complimented with fieldwork. On completion of this course one can easily find jobs in schools, hospitals, public and private corporate companies, department of Social welfare, and other welfare agencies of the Govt, NGO’s, mental health clinics and senior citizen homes”.
You will find many of these new, professional and job oriented courses on offer. The Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Computer Applications courses were started keeping in mind the post graduation courses such as the MBA and MCA. Says a faculty at a BBA college, “The objective of BBA is to build up competence in students to effectively undertake entry level management jobs in organizations. The uniqueness of this program is to build competencies in the students such as analytical ability, interpersonal skills, communication fluency, and presentation skills.”
As such, as of now these courses are definitely better in the job market, than simply acquiring a common degree.
Another course which is in Goa since 2006 is the BTTM (Bachelor of Travel and Tourism Management). According to a faculty of this three year course, a number of job opportunities are there for the enterprising individuals such as a ground hostess and public relations assistant, to jobs in the tourism and hotel sectors, as an entrepreneur, guide, travel agent and even as a lecturer after completing a post graduation.
The Home Science course which started in the 80’s is a course which on completion one can walk into any job. Here the students are trained in food, nutrition and diet ethics, textile clothing, human development, community resource management, and interior designing. As a result they can easily find jobs in hospitals, as fashion designers, teachers, or dieticians.
In the years gone by when I was in school, we had a technical subject and had to visit once a week a technical school. Here in the first year ( 8th std) we would be exposed to basics in carpentry, filing, and related subjects and in the (9th std ) we were offered much more sophisticated subjects such as Radio engineering, electric engineering etc. Although we did not learn much, the exposure to such subjects made a great difference as to how we perceived engineering and technical subjects. This helped many of my schoolmates go in for electrical engineering or mechanical engineering once they completed their 12th std. This showed the impact of such courses on young minds.
