Demand for diploma in pharma spikes in Pune; not many takers for diploma in engineering

As per the data, the total intake for post Class 10 technical diploma courses is 1,34,849 seats, of which only 57,748 applications have been submitted by the students.

Dearth of employment opportunities and fear of a restricted career, is pushing several students to migrate from technical diploma courses to other courses, said experts in the field. This is the backdrop of the recent findings of the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Maharashtra, which saw over 70,000 seats of Polytechnic diploma courses in the state lying vacant. On the contrary, the DPharm (Diploma in Pharmacy) course, saw a whooping number of applications, exceeding the intake capacity by three times.

A total of 65,000 applications have been received for the 19,793 seats in D Pharm course. (HT Representational Photo)

As per the data, the total intake for post Class 10 technical diploma courses is 1,34,849 seats, of which only 57,748 applications have been made by the students. On the other hand, seats for DPharm courses saw a total of 65,000 applications for only 19,793 seats, this year.

Dilip Nandanwar, joint director of technical education, said that the outcome is highly influenced by the state of employment opportunities in the country. “This is not the first year where we have seen a dip in the applications for technical diploma courses. It keeps increasing every year, especially because of the low career options for diploma students as opposed to degree graduates. On the other hand, more students are applying for pharma courses even in diploma, because of the rising need of people in the pharmacy sector,” said Nandanwar.

A total of 77,101 seats are yet to be filled for polytechnic diploma courses.

Rohini Kale, principal, MIT Polytechnic College, added that a rising preference for graduation students, both for jobs and further education, makes it harder for students to take up diploma courses. “After completing diplomas, students trying to get an admission in the second year direct engineering course face a lot of competition from first year engineering graduates. So, many students prefer to pursue junior college or high school, instead of going for a diploma, which will further limit their chances of giving competitive exams,” said Kale.

She added that the matter of fee structure also bothers many, as the fees for these technical courses is high, as compared to Class 11 and 12 education.

“Many employers prefer to hire graduates or post graduates, and not diploma students, as so do many colleges. Also, the lack of career opportunities for even engineering graduates is turning people to other technical courses like Pharmacy,” said Nandanwar.