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Imparting quality
skills Fulbright scholar
designs new course E-learning is the
mantra Campus
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Imparting quality skills RECENTLY, a survey conducted by a consultancy firm for the Confederation of Indian Industry predicted 50 lakh jobs in Punjab by 2015. The findings of the survey sound very exciting particularly when the job market in Punjab is at crossroads, whereas a report by the National Association of Software and Services Companies reveals startling facts that 75 per cent of the engineering students and 90 per cent of college graduates are not employable in India. The employability of graduates in Punjab is no better than these findings. According to the reports, jobs in India, particularly in Punjab, would be available in large numbers in sectors such as telecom, insurance, banking, textile, health care, tourism, agro-based, dairy farming, construction, pharmaceutical, etc. This positive emerging trend in the job market, however, is accompanied by an equally depressing trend—poverty of employable graduates. This mismatch between demand and supply of fresh employable graduates is mainly due to mushrooming of professional educational institutions without having effective regulatory machinery for ensuring compliance to quality parameters. Thus, we end up with an unhealthy combination of a huge army of educated youth and poor employability. In India, particularly in Punjab, the need of the hour is to break this combination for reaping the benefits of “demographic dividends”, i.e., the advantage of a young nation in the form of having a maximum proportion of working population (15 to 64 years) in the total population. Thus, the setting up of finishing schools can help in a big way to improve employability of the educated youth from existing 25 per cent to the vicinity of 100 per cent. The idea of finishing schools dates back to the 1870s, when the first finishing school was set up in Switzerland. Initially, the finishing schools were designed to prepare girls for marriage by polishing their skills in cultural subjects, ethics and social activities. Gradually, the corporate world adapted this practice to prepare fresh graduates for the job market. The endeavour of contemporary finishing schools is to improve employability of the fresh graduates as well as those in service by ensuring their all round development. The programmes, thus, accordingly designed to fill the gaps between theory and practice, specially make up the gaps left by educational institutions. These schools develop and hone the soft skills, including communication and oratory skills, courteousness, etiquettes, empathy, responsiveness and integrity of high order. The resource persons for training programmes are drawn both from the academia and the corporate world. In India the finishing schools are mainly concentrated in the southern and western states like Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The Walchand Dale Carnegie Finishing School deserves special mention. It is a joint venture of Walchand Talentfirst Ltd., a constituent of the 100-year-old Walchand Group and Dale Carnegie Training, the global leader in business skills training. The Model Finishing School in Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala, is a joint venture of the IT Department, Government of Kerala, Institute of Human Resources Development and Infosys. The mandate of the school is to mitigate the mismatch between the products of educational institutions and job skills required by industry and finally preparing youth of Kerala to find suitable jobs in national and international markets. Tamil Nadu also has one finishing school in Chennai run by the Software Technology Park of India (STPI). Based on the success of this school, the STPI recently decided to set up 50 such schools across the country. Ecole Solitaire Finishing School, Pune, is designed to shape, polish and finally prepare trainees for the corporate world. The course structure includes etiquette, social and communication skills, effective public speaking, confidence building, career planning, goal setting, and time management. The only finishing school from North India is Pria Warrick Finishing Academy, New Delhi. The aim of the school is to impart training to managers in the areas of protocol, corporate etiquette, social etiquette, and personality development. Learning from the experiences of these schools, Punjab should also set up such schools. Initially, four finishing schools, one each in the three regions, Malwa (Ludhiana), Doaba (Jalandhar) and Majha (Amritsar), and fourth in Chandigarh may be set up. For running these finishing schools, the existing infrastructure of educational institutions particularly universities can be used. The course curriculum should be developed in consultation with the potential employers. They should also be actively involved in imparting course instructions and steering hands-on experience. — The writer is Dean, Faculty of Arts, Panjab University, Chandigarh
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Fulbright scholar designs new course
PROFESSOR of exercise physiology, West Chester University, Pennsylvania (USA), Sheri Melton, who taught at the Sports Medicine and Physiotherapy Department of Guru Nanak Dev University during a four-month-long Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship, has designed a new postgraduate course, “Exercise Physiology and Sports Nutrition”, for the host university. Under the scholarship, Melton devoted the first fortnight of the programme attending an orientation programme in Washington, DC. Her stay at Guru Nanak Dev University ended in the last week of November. She was the first Fulbright scholar to have stayed for such a long duration in the 40-year existence of Guru Nanak Dev University. As a Fulbright-Nehru scholar, Melton exposed the students to latest developments in the field and trained them in new courses. On the other hand, she enjoyed the company of Indian students and was impressed by their responsiveness, behaviour and industriousness. About the programme, Melton said, “Its curriculum is very close to what is being taught at West Chester University besides adding more material on nutrition and exercise physiology courses.” The subject is designed to adjudge the fitness level of a sportsperson and then assign the exercises regime accordingly. It also includes training the students of sports medicine for exercise testing, blood chemistry, biochemistry, obesity level, prescription and biomechanics. Jaspal Singh Sandhu, head of the department, said the course had been approved by the Board of Studies and faculty of the host university and would now await endorsement by the Academic Council to be incorporated as a subject from the next academic session to be taught to the students. Sharing her teaching experience at the university, Melton said it was not much different from teaching in the According to Melton, the scientists in the universities in India and the US were carrying out significant research work but added that its application must be ensured. There are only two reputed sports medicine centres in India, one at the Army Sports Centre, Pune, and the other at Guru Nanak Dev University. She selected the latter for pursuing her scholarship.
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THE amalgamation of technology and education is the latest mantra in the education arena today. With the recent CBSE reforms and CAT changing its examination pattern to an online platform, technology is making its way into the Indian educational landscape. As a result, schools following the CBSE curriculum have already started looking at adopting numerous measures by which they can keep up with these reforms. Also, parents too feel the need to adopt methods which will help enrich their children’s learning curve, making them knowledgeable in the use of technology in education at an early age. To cater to this need, several e-learning initiatives have made inroads into the CBSE education system. LearnNext, launched by Helix Technologies Solutions, is one such e-learning initiative, which holistically caters to the day-to-day academic needs of the CBSE students. It is a computer-based learning aid which provides comprehensive audio-visual study material based on mathematics and science subjects for the CBSE students from Class VI to Class X. LearnNext is aligned to the NCERT syllabus and guidelines and has been designed to increase students’ understanding of the subject. Commenting on the advantages of e-learning in education and LearnNext, Jai De Costa of Helix Technology Solutions said, “E-learning is self-paced. The learner can increase or decrease the pace as per his/her convenience. It facilitates an in-depth understanding of concepts and helps longer memory retention. Therefore, LearnNext offers a clear value proposition for CBSE students, both in terms of learning as well as cost saving. It can completely transform a student’s understanding of complex subjects like maths, science and social studies with the help of audio-visual support. Through LearnNext, the students can also track their own performances as per their individual need for self-evaluation and progress.”
— TNS
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Campus Notes DR Jatinder Kaur, a lecturer in the Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences of Guru Nanak Dev University, has been conferred with the Young Scientist Award-2009 at the Second International Conference on “Bio-wealth Management for Sustainable Livelihood”, organised jointly by the International Consortium of Contemporary Biologists (ICCB) and the Madhawi-Shyam Educational Trust (MSET) at Ranchi, Jharkhand. Dr Jatinder Kaur presented her paper on “Heavy metal pollution and genotoxic potential of roadside soils of Amritsar”. The fellowship certificates of MSET and FICCB were also presented to her on the occasion. Dr Saroj Arora, head, Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, said the research paper was jointly authored by Dr Avinash Kaur Nagpal and the two students, Rajneet Kour Soodan and Dipakshi Sharma. In their study, the authors estimated the genotoxic effects of roadside surface soils of six junctions-Chheharta, GND University, Putlighar, Crystal Chowk, railway station and bus stand-and found all the samples to be genotoxic indicating high level of pollution, she said. Meanwhile, the University Grant Commission (UGC) has selected Dr Viney Kapoor Mehra, Reader, Department of Laws, for the “Post-Doctoral Research Award”. Dr Mehra has been awarded a grant of Rs 2 lakh by the UGC for this purpose. Out of 40 research papers presented by her at national and international seminars and workshops, 14 have been published in reputed journals.
Sharpening talent
Only a good research scholar can be a good teacher, as the research and teaching are complement to each other. This was stated by Dr Dharam Singh, head of the School of Punjabi Studies, during his inaugural address at a seminar on the "Contribution of seminars and its significance in sharpening the talent of research scholars" organised by the university as a part of "Punjabi Week" under the aegis of the School of Punjabi Studies. Dr Paramjeet Singh, Dr Sukhdev Singh Khera and Dr Harbhajan Singh Bhatia presided over all the sessions and presented their views. Research scholars Sidharath Kumar, Vishal Kumar, Sakattar Singh, Jasbir Kaur, Navdeep Singh, Sukhdev Singh and Amarjeet Singh presented their research papers on folklore, literature, language, gurbani and criticism.
GNDUTA polls on Dec 3
Elections to the Guru Nanak Dev University Teachers Association (GNDUTA) for the year 2009-10 will be held on December 3. Professor M.S. Hundal, Department of Chemistry, has been nominated as returning officer to conduct the elections on the university campus. Professor Raghbir Singh, dean, academic affairs, said Dr Harish Chandra Sharma, Department of History, would conduct the elections on university's regional campus at Jalandhar, while Dr Jaspal Singh, head, Department of Laws, and Dr Palwinder Singh, Department of Chemistry, would conduct the elections on the regional campuses Gurdaspur and ASSM College, Mukandpur, respectively. — Contributed by P. K. Jaiswar
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