Undergraduate students at the Indian Institute of Technology of Madras must henceforth take a set of courses so that they gain personal, social and leadership skills. The Personal and Professional Development course will be a minor stream that students must take.
Though already 1,500 students register for a set of several courses for personal and professional growth and leadership, the new minor stream aims to transform student culture, talent and leadership, the institute said.
The minor stream is open to all students of B. Tech and dual degree programmes and the courses offered under the programme are available as electives to all students of the institute, irrespective of the programme they are in. There will be over 15 courses for students to choose from.
Institute director V. Kamakoti said the programmes were expected to positively impact the way of thinking and helped build interpersonal and transferable skills to meet career aspirations. The aim is to inculcate in students the right mindset to navigate the competitive, demanding and uncertain world, with resilience and wisdom.
The resource persons have been drawn from the institute’s alumni. By making it curricular, it makes it possible to show employers that the institute’s students were trained to contribute to an organisation’s growth and build sustainable value and wealth, he said.
