As the “dream chasers” and “dream facilitators” came together over The HinduEducationPlus Career Counselling 2013, at Belgaum Institute of Medical Sciences here on Sunday, the former, who had come with lot of confusions and dilemmas over choosing right career option after SSLC and PU course, returned enlightened with much more information which was not easily accessible to them at other forums.
The annual outreach programme of The Hindu’s weekly supplement was helpful indeed for the more than 300 participating students and their parents coming from various backgrounds in clearing their doubts and apprehensions and also, motivating them towards taking a proper decision at a time when they were looking forward to a rewarding course for bright career prospects.
The event not only played a catalytic role in clearing doubts, confusions and apprehensions in the minds of students and parents, but also facilitated them to explore from a host of career options in professional courses such as in engineering, medicine, nursing, paramedics and pharmaceutics after SSLC and PUC offered by conventional university programmes in various disciplines and several other areas such as in basic sciences, arts, agriculture, certified courses and courses that helped explore self-employment opportunities.
The session took off on a highly inspiring note with Purushottam Bung, Director, Karnataka Law Society’s Institute of Management and Research, Belgaum, quoting anecdotes from real life and tipping off on how to take a right decision on selecting one from a host of career options. He advised the students to carry out proper home work before taking a final call on their career prospects. This was possible if a student uncovered his or her ‘day dreaming’ that does not allow him or her to sleep. Advising against falling prey to ‘goat race’ for engineering and medical courses, he asked them carry out perspective analysis of each course before them, including monetary aspects. Failing to do proper home work could land them into taking hasty decisions.
Yet, while looking forward to bright careers, they also need to ascertain whether a particular course would be beneficial to him and the society, and how one could contribute to the chosen profession. He said career goals and excellence could not be achieved without patience, perseverance and passion. He also informed about various programmes open to chalk out a career, such as in sports, humanities, social entrepreneurship, paramedical, social sciences, unconventional engineering courses, as yoga teachers who were in big demand in Western countries these days and in off-stage opportunities in film and TV media. Finally, the bottom line, Prof.Bung said the vanilla courses were of little significance in these days of competition and the students need to take up specialisations while pursuing their academics.
BIMS Director, the chief guest for the event who released the career handbook titled ‘The Great Leap,’ featured with articles by experts on courses and career options distributed among students free of cost, said the medical profession was one which had no saturation level and it would continue to be vogue as long as the life existed on planet earth. The profession of a doctor was so noble that people compare him with God. The students had wide scope in medical profession, with as many as 36 Medical Colleges, including 10 run by the State government wherein the BIMS was one of the best in the state.
Dr.Pilli, Principal, KLES’ Dr. M.S. Sheshagiri College of Engineering and Technology, Belgaum who spoke on opportunities in engineering field complimented THE HINDU for bringing what he described as the “dream chasers” and “dream facilitators”. He said while choosing a course, a student must assess his capability to pursue it and avoid fascination for salary packages. However, a student could pass out but not achieve excellence without nurturing self-learning. Additional skill development would help in making them employable.
M.C. Mathad, Principal, KLE School of Agricultural Training and Research, Belgaum informed about growing career prospects in agriculture and horticulture sector for qualified and trained personnel and self-employment opportunities. Later, Nodal Officers of Karnataka Examinations
Subash Sunkad, Marketing Manager, State Bank of India, Main branch, Belgaum informed about the educational loans available from the banks at simple interest.
During the two-and-a-half-hour session, Nodal Officers from the Karnataka Examinations Authority, Savitha and Bendigeri Siddarail informed about the new elements introduced in Common Entrance Test (CET) procedure, including the process of allocation of seats to courses in the State-run agricultural universities and the admissions for B.Sc. and diploma students joining engineering courses.
While updating the information on admission procedure, Ms.Savitha asked the students to carry along with them all the original documents along with photo copies duly attested by a gazetted officer of State government for verification purposes. She said the students could make payments of fees either at Indian Bank counters or by drawing a bank demand draft. They could also make payments through Credit/Debit cards and Internet banking as well.
The presentations were following by question-answer session where the students tried to explore opportunities apart from engineering and medicine and some of them showed keen interest in taking up courses in basis sciences, astro physics, astronomy, literature, as entrepreneurs in IT industry.