‘Need to increase employability of JK students’

Srinagar: Vice-Chancellor University of Kashmir Prof Talat Ahmad and Commissioner, Secretary to Government Higher Education Department Talat Pervez Rohella on Tuesday batted for “substantially increasing” the employability of college students in Jammu and Kashmir and frame the additional vocational courses of study accordingly.
Addressing a meeting to discuss formulation of modules for undergraduate/post-graduate programs for running additional vocational programs under one-year certificate/two-year diploma and degree courses as per the UGC guidelines and the New Education Policy-2020, Rohella said: “Now that the NEP 2020 is here, we are in the process of finding ways and means to evolve and find-tune our system as per its guidelines and catch up with it at the earliest.” “We need to prepare our institutions to evolve and diversify them in tune with what the system desires. That’s why we are here to discuss if we can have the additional vocational courses, which eventually evolve into certificate and degree courses, started. The whole idea is to increase the employability of the college students by imparting them full practical training, alongside imparting them the theoretical education,” Rohella said.
Addressing the participants, Prof Talat Ahmad underscored the need to offer skill-based and market-oriented courses at the college-level to increase the employability of the students. He assured all help from the university to formulate such courses with the help of experts from different fields of study. Rohella said the curriculum, wherever required, can be fine-tuned such that students get practical education. He said these courses can be launched in the fields of agricultural sciences, music and fine arts, information technology etc. “We will create skill workshops in colleges wherever required. We will put in place the necessary infrastructure and human resource to make it a reality. We have to create an atmosphere where students learn skills through practical training with the objective of increasing their employability,” he said.He said the higher education department intends to decongest the existing colleges by having traditional courses offered in the new colleges. “Alongside, we will be improving infrastructure in the existing colleges to offer courses there having high potential of employability,” he said.
The meeting held at the University of Kashmir, among others, was attended by, Dean College Development Council, UoK; Director Colleges J&K; Dean Cluster University of Srinagar; Director EMMRC University of Kashmir, representatives and officers from NIT Srinagar; IUST Awantipora, SKUAST Kashmir, Principal Amar Singh College Srinagar; Principal School of Fine Arts, University of Kashmir; Principal Islamia College of Science and Commerce, and others.