Sustained efforts by the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education to popularise less explored but exciting career options among youngsters are beginning to bear fruit.
Spearheading the campaign is the directorate’s Career Guidance and Adolescent Counselling Cell, which has been running a novel programme, SITAR (Students Initiative for Training in Artistic Rejuvenation), for familiarising 40 selected Plus One students from government and aided schools across the State with exciting career choices every year.
Interactions
Since its launch in 2012-13, SITAR has showcased drama, film, design, journalism and mass communication, and fashion design, giving students exposure to numerous courses and job opportunities available in these fields while helping them garner insights through interactions with masters in the respective professions.
“Many students who participated in SITAR are either pursuing higher education in the respective fields they were chosen for or have already entered the industries concerned. For instance, 35 out of the 40 students selected for the programme showcasing design are found to be pursuing higher studies in that field in premier institutes,” C.M. Azeem, State coordinator, Career Guidance and Adolescent Counselling Cell, told The Hindu .
Animation course
This year, the focus was on animation and the students chosen attended a four-day orientation course at the animation division of the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design (NID). This was followed by a one-day visit to Pune where prominent animation studios of the country are located. They had already attended a State-level orientation camp at Toonz Animation India at Technopark.
State and national level camps are organised for the participants in association with premier institutes in the respective fields.
National-level camps
For instance, in the inaugural year focusing on drama, the State and national-level camps were hosted by Thrissur-based School of Drama and the New Delhi-based National School of Drama while the Film and Television Institute of India hosted the national camp on films. Similarly, NID at Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Mass Communication at New Delhi, National Institute of Fashion Technology at Chennai hosted the national camps during the years when SITAR showcased design, journalism and mass communication and fashion design from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
