The Hindu Business Line : UGC-DST combine pushes for job-oriented courses

WITH the share of the services sector in the gross domestic product (GDP) poised for a leap, the University Grants Commission and the Department of Science and Technology are pushing for an image make-over of the traditional courses in arts and science colleges. This move will equip the students to meet the emerging trends in the job market.

The Vice-Chancellors of nearly 100 universities will participate to give a formal shape to promote knowledge-based enterprises for which workshops in Coimbatore and Ahmedabad have been organised, according to Dr Arun Nigavekar, Chairman, University Grants Commission (UGC).

He said there were nearly 9.4 million students enrolled under the higher education system pursuing courses in arts and science as well as in professional colleges. The focus of the UGC will be on how to make education relevant, which would make graduates gainfully employed or become entrepreneurs, and make education a quality product.

Dr Arun Nigavekar said the UGC and DST have come together `as a system' in a more focussed manner to take advantage of the emerging global scenario of `knowledge getting converted into wealth.'

He said it was being planned to establish knowledge-based entrepreneurship cells in universities and in select colleges through the Entrepreneurship Development Cells (EDCs). He pointed out that in many of the PG level programmes in biotechnology, IT, electronics, physics etc., expertise was generated. These students should be helped to convert their expertise into enterprise. The UGC Chairman pointed out that apart from activities such as agriculture and industry, the services sector has come to occupy a key part in the GDP of any nation. With expanding services sector, the students graduating from arts and science courses would find job opportunities.

He said the Universities and Colleges have launched certificate/diploma/advance diploma programmes in utility oriented skills that the students should study during their graduate courses. For instance, a B.Com student would take up certificate courses in personal finance, forex, event management, IPR, e-commerce etc., during the degree course making the student ready for the job market.

Mr S.V. Balasubramaniam, CMD, Bannari Amman Sugars and Chairman of Bannari Amman Institute of Technology (BIT), which organised the workshop, said the college had trained nearly 90 candidates in its EDC.

While five persons have started SSIs, a few have opted for further training or higher studies.

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