The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Beyond medicine and engineering

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 18, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Beyond medicine and engineering

Staff Reporter

Education fair opens doors to other choices

COLLECTIVE SCRUTINY: The Hindu Education Plus Career Fair exposed students to a range of options in higher education and careers.

CHENNAI: Day 2 of the The Hindu Education Plus Career Fair on Sunday highlighted a range of career choices open to students today.

Following the inauguration of the fair, organised in association with the University of Madras, a detailed session on pre-counselling and a talk on the ‘IT edge’ were featured on Saturday. The day had more in store for eager students and anxious parents.

If students had come thinking that medicine and engineering were the only feasible options, they would have realised how terribly mistaken they were, after attending the various sessions on Sunday.

Academicians and industry professionals covered options such as aviation, hospitality, maritime education, bio sciences, fashion technology and textiles, animation, journalism and new media.

Opportunities aplenty

Speaking on the growth in the airline, hotel and travel industries in the country, Frankfinn Institute of Airhostess Training’s director Benjamin Verghese said there were 40 million jobs available in the travel industry. “Even international airlines are beginning to recruit Indians,” he pointed out.

S.Shekar of JMPS Consultants highlighted the opportunities in shipping industry. He elaborated on various options ranging from maritime logistics management to marine tourism.

Y.Rajalakshmi, head of department of biotechnology and bioinformatics, Alpha College of Arts and Science, spoke on prospects for entrepreneurship and jobs in multinational corporations for those studying Bio Sciences.

Tapping creativity

Loyal Textiles’ vice president (HR) M.Ramakrishnan and the National Institute of Fashion Technology director S.Devadoss said the textile and fashion industry was in need of skilled professionals for an array of services. The textile sector is expected to create 1.20 crore jobs in the next few years. Chief academic officer of the Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology V.Natrajan said animation was exciting and challenging, and offered scope for super specialisations. The industry had tremendous opportunities in India as well.

Dean of the school of media, M.O.P.Vaishnav College for Women, G. Kavitha, said there was a dearth of media graduates. She highlighted the various courses, which would make students industry-ready.

The morning session focussed on counselling students to develop critical skills that would help them land the right job.

Along with technical skills, skills such as communication, planning and organisation, decision making ability, creativity and problem-solving were some of the skills that earned value at the workplace, said R Srinivasa Gopal, manager, human resources, Red Octane Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

In an interactive session with students, N. Rajamohan, director, Bodhi, said employability skills were those that increased individual and group productivity. About 1,000 students, parents and professionals attended day two of the event. Indian Bank was the lead sponsor.

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