On the Road Less Travelled

OFFBEAT OPTIONS ARE MAKING EDUCATION AN EXCITING SPACE FOR LEARNERS

The Indian education sector is in a most exciting phase. New-age terms like digitisation, open access, skills education, machine learning, customised programmes and delivery, integrated learning have given the sector an unmistakable buzz that makes it exciting for learners, educators, policymakers and other stakeholders.

The biggest beneficiary of this phenomenon is unquestionably the learner who is at the centre of the education ecosystem. Their needs and preferences today influence and determine teaching pedagogies, curricula and delivery methods. But the single biggest transformation for the learners is in the career choices they can make today. Gone are the days of predetermined career options and fixation with traditional streams— the booming Indian economy combined with greater access to global information, peer influence and evolving parental mindsets has given rise to several new career choices that resonate with the learner’s personality and interest. And a whole host of new courses and institutions have sprung up to cater to them.

An incorrect corollary to this is to assume that traditional courses are in less demand. Instead they are evolving to include new courses and revised curriculum. A look at some career streams and courses that have begun to excite the new-age learner.

With the proliferation of technology in daily life, several digital technology related career options have drawn learners towards them. Courses in animation, app development and gaming have become popular owing to the growth in the usage of smartphones and tablets. Digital media, web designing and graphics are other areas of youth interest. The digital revolution has also created a whole new industry around cyber security, and demand for such professionals has led to the development of new courses and also its inclusion in traditional BTech/BE courses.

Healthcare is another fast-growing sector in India. Courses around nutrition, alternative medicine, naturopathy attract students in a big way. With the introduction of ‘Yoga’ in several curricula, training courses for it are in high demand. Courses for sports medicine professionals too are getting popular. Likewise, demand for nursing and rehabilitation professionals is on the rise.

Growing consciousness towards environment conservation and ecology has fuelled student interest. While organisations such as The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) were pioneers in this area, several other institutes now offer courses in environmental sciences. The exponential growth of food, hospitality and travel and tourism sector has bred demand for skilled professionals in the hospitality sector has. Newer areas such as culinary arts have become part of traditional hotel management curricula even as courses have come up in niche areas such as bartending.

Music and art is emerging as another field for professional training. While there have always been training institutes for these, the modern courses not just support skill-building but also provide students with necessary exposure and internships.

There is a whole world of opportunity out there: coding, data analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, maritime law, intellectual property and genetic sciences are other areas generating student interest. There has been a paradigm shift in the learner’s expectation from an education programme—it is no more about earning a degree and feeling content. Students select programmes they believe will skill them, make them more competent, and give them an opportunity to shape their future based on their interests and beliefs. Job-oriented courses today are preferred over those that may not necessarily lead to immediate employment, and in the process learners have picked up what were otherwise considered ‘offbeat’ choices as regular career options now.

However, a course by itself cannot be the end-all, one’s knowledge and skill must be backed by social and communicative skills. In the Indian context, proficiency in English is an enabler for a better job. More and more young adults who have lacked adequate exposure to English early in their early lives are taking up English language courses. At the same time, adult English learning courses are becoming bilingual and there is growing demand for bilingual dictionaries and grammar books. Sivaramakrishnan V. is Managing Director,

Oxford University Press, India