Vocational courses in Pune colleges see less takers, 40% seats vacant
Lack of proper employment is the reason students shy away from courses like electronics, telecommunication and instrumentation
The perception of fewer employment opportunities in the industrial sectors is being cited as the reason behind a drop in admissions for vocational courses, experts suggest.
The decrease is in the number of students for courses like Engineering, Pharmacy, MBA and MCA, as per the official records, where Dr Dilip Nandanwar, joint director Technical Education, claimed that only 59 per cent of admissions have been taken in the new academic year, while 40 per cent of the seats in colleges offering the above courses lay vacant.
He cited a lack of proper employment being the reason students shy away from courses like electronics, telecommunication and instrumentation.
Harping Dr Nandanwar’s opinion many professors of different colleges elaborated on how the perception of an uncertain job scenario is affecting the admission trend.
“In general the economic slowdown has had it’s negative effects on the psyche of both parents and students, pushing them away from such courses. Further, reports of cost-cutting, lay-offs by big companies is discouraging students from choosing these courses,” said professor Poonam Ponde.
Like her, many more professors feel that reports on industries becoming more automated is adding to their worries.
The Central Assessment Process rounds for Pune, Solapur, Sangli, Kolhapur and Satara districts of the division have been completed. The filing of application for the registration was made available online.
According to the data published by the directorate of technical education, Pune division, five districts have seen an average of 55 per cent of admissions in all streams. The last date for getting admission is said to be August 14.
Experts further added that the confusion associated with the CAP admission procedure is another reason for the dip. With students and parents unaware of the steps in the procedure, and the committee’s directive to make the first preference list a mandatory choice for the selected candidates, a chunk of students have been reported to be out of the process, which has contributed to the drop.
However, they feel the trend varies from college to college. “I feel it is a slightly different case for different colleges, so highly sought out colleges might not face this problem of vacant seats, unlike the second or third-grade colleges, ” Ponde added.
Speaking from the industry view point, Arun Firodia , chairman, Kinetic Group,said, “For last so many years there has not been much growth in employment in manufacturing, people think of purchasing automatic machines rather than employing people; thus growth in manufacturing sector is stopped. Secondly, Chinese are dumping material in India, $100 million is the import from China, which is not into hi-tech manufacturing but into toys, shoes etc. We can manufacture that very well and if we discourage that and only buy Indian products, then 100 million worth of jobs will be created in India. This also requires Indians to buy the Indian products.”
“We have to find ways of making in India.We rank 150th in ease of doing business, because we have so many permissions, inspections, thus discouraging Indians from being manufacturers and instead they are becoming importers. We have to change our mindset from importing to manufacturing especially in what Chinese are supplying,” he added.