Although home science is a conventional stream, it is suddenly finding an increasing number of takers, writes Shveta Pathak

WHAT if you get a career option that gives you opportunities in India as well as overseas? It would make your family happy too for it will provide you with skill sets required to manage your home efficiently.

Although home science is a conventional stream, it is suddenly finding an increasing number of takers. Colleges are offering options in this discipline through bachelor’s degree, master and diploma courses.Among the options that are available include food and nutrition, human development sociology and family resource management, creche and nursery school management, food preservation and training, clothing and textiles and interior decoration.

Wide scope

"With the number of options available in the final year of a degree course in home science having increased, many students of ours land up with jobs as soon as they finish their graduation. Then, of course, you can opt for master or a diploma course to specialise further", says Dr M.K. Oberoi, Dean, College of Home Science, Punjab Agriculture University. Career options, she says, depend on the specialisation you go in for.

You can become a dietician, a diet therapist, or get associated with bakery. There are numerous diversifications that are available in these streams overseas. "Options for self-employment, too, are numerous. A student of ours, for instance, supplies diet for schoolchildren," said Dr Oberoi.

It is not just learning to bake cakes and cookies. Here we are talking of experts who know the nutrition value of foods they process. Opportunities are there in hotels also.

Human development sociology would provide one with an expertise in child care. One can open creches and day-care centres as well. In this field, one is trained to develop a child’s mental and physical faculties. The stream offers options as counsellors, for which the demand is increasing stupendously in India and abroad.

The stream of clothing and textiles helps one pick up a job as a textile designer or opt for fashion designing.

Opting for family resource management would help one specialise in areas like interior decoration. Such students are finding opportunities as professional decorators not only for houses but for events like marriages. Even big hotels are hiring professionals from this stream.

Self employment

In all these streams, one has the option to begin one’s own venture. "Most of the careers, if you see, are low-investment oriented and would mean flexible working hours too," Dr Oberoi opines.

Those in food and nutrition field mostly tie up with bakeries for the supply of food products like cakes or even start supplying them on their own. Similarly, one who has gone in for human development sociology can open a child care centre or start providing counselling for children. These courses are much in demand abroad.

Avenues abroad

Many students go in for a one-year diploma in one of these fields, as it is quite easy to get a job overseas in these areas. Since they have acquired specialisation, they have an edge over others.

Courses

Apart from a bachelors degree in home science one can go in for a master degree or even a PhD. Besides, there are one-year diploma courses in the field of creche and nursery school management, food preservation, interior decoration and fashion designing, where one is given exhaustive training.

These courses can even provide self-owned ventures to young professionals provided they are enterprising and dynamic.