Lawyers, entrepreneurs, media professionals, police personnel, and bankers will soon be giving lectures in colleges. In a move to help final-year degree students make informed career choices before they graduate, the Department of Collegiate Education (DCE) has decided to make it mandatory for 412 State-run degree colleges to invite professionals from various fields to conduct lectures.
For students pursuing degree in humanities, sciences, commerce, and management courses, the path to the right career may seem like a maze. By making it compulsory for colleges to invite industry experts, the department hopes that the graduating students will learn more about the opportunities available to them.
“The idea is to help students understand what different professions entail so that they make an informed choice. Hearing directly from the practitioners about their daily schedule and their job profile will certainly motivate students,” said Ajay Nagabhushan, Commissioner of the DCE.
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While this is a common practice in private colleges, he feels that introducing such a programme in government colleges will open the doors of opportunity to students from rural areas.
From this academic year
The lecture series by these professionals will begin from this academic year. Colleges will be asked to invite at least one professional lecturer a month. Each lecture will be for an hour, and will be followed by an interactive session. A detailed circular will be sent to college principals shortly, said officials.
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Both students and the members of faculty have welcomed the programme. K. Ramakrishna Reddy, associate professor of chemistry, Government Science College, Bengaluru, said such lectures would also break the monotony.
“Many students from rural areas studying in government colleges are those who are set to become first-generation degree holders, and they may not have the required exposure to the job market. As teachers, we teach students different subjects but having the professionals come and talk will help them,” Prof. Reddy said.
Pallavi K., a final-year M.Sc. student from Bengaluru, is looking forward to career sessions. “As a science student after I began my graduation course, I have been thinking only of my subjects and the careers related to them. But since we have not been exposed to many career options, we would not have thought of pursuing many of them because of lack of guidance. I hope all colleges take this programme seriously,” she said.
Department to make it mandatory for govt. degree colleges to have lectures by industry experts