Career Counselling Series 2021

industan Institute of Technology & Sciences (HITS), in partnership with The Hindu Education Plus, organized Online Career Counselling 2021 Series, with a panel of dynamic Educationists from all over the country, to discuss and devise various trends and future prospects of Careers in Engineering, Allied Health Sciences, Liberal Arts, Law, and Management. The Online Career Counselling series were successfully conducted in five sessions:

WEBINAR #1

TOPIC OF PANEL DISCUSSION: Engineering Innovation, Product Development and Start-ups

The Session drew a vivid picture about the importance of the innovation in engineering and how can that lead to product development and startups.

Dr. S. N. Sridhara, Vice Chancellor, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science explained about the Product development process which includes few steps namely, idea generation, feature development and product development followed by testing and user feedback, IPR protection, production and marketing.

"One should be always highly innovative and think out of the box, and secondly, you should have good basic knowledge and skills developed."

Dr. Yajula Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University Hyderabad, made a brief description about dominant activities of an innovative engineer. He carefully pointed out that the dominant activities in today's engineering institutions are calculations, essays, theories, and it does represent a 20th century, with a very wide gulf between the two sets of activities. "Entrepreneurship is a journey from the state of worldly contentedness leading to creation of wealth in most cases, sometimes not. An entrepreneurship is a process of creating value to resources material non-material and delivering value to customers and capturing value for the stakeholders", stated Dr. Yajula. Mr. Rajneesh Mittal, Head of Technology and Content, UNext Learning, commented that Education is an extrinsic environment and has defined curriculum. He emphasized on the aspects of the testing framework against which students are measured for accreditation. "There was no other source for us to learn, but learning on the other hand if we can call it that it probably goes beyond education" concluded Rajneesh Mittal. The Panel members shed their knowledge upon all aspects of innovation and development in engineering and start-ups, and gave the listeners a clear idea on the same. The Discussion was managed and moderated with proper assessment by the Moderator, Ms. R. Sujatha, Deputy Editor-Reporting, The Hindu.

WEBINAR #2
 

TOPIC OF PANEL DISCUSSION: A Career in Allied Health Sciences – Current Trends and Future Prospects

The first of the two sessions marked one of the important aspects the present world of Education faces, and drew a holistic picture of the sector in India.

Dr. B. Rajasekhar, Founding/Former Dean, Advisor for AHS Programs, Manipal College of Health Professions, remarked that India is still 50 years behind the rest of the world in Allied Health Sciences (AHS) education and career, and insisted on the need to review and drive transformation in this sector. "In India, the absence of a central regulatory council has led to non-uniformity of curriculum, infrastructure, faculty and clinical exposure" Dr. B. Rajasekhar added.

Dr. Jeyaprakash Shetty K., Vice-Dean, Professor and HOD, Pathology, K.S. Hedge Medical Academy, NITTE University, Mangalore, and Dr. R.W. Alexander Jesudasan, Pro Vice-Chancellor, by Hindustan Institute of Technology & Sciences, followed up with an overview of the various courses exclusively designed for the successful career of the student fraternity Allied Health Sciences, widely ranging from Bachelor's and Master's degrees to Diploma courses in Medical Laboratory Technology and Respiratory Therapy, Pharmacology, Nutrition and Dietetics and General Duty Assistant, amongst others. The take-aways of the panel discussion included notes on the soft skills required and various avenues for work from hospitals to sports clinics.

“While one is not required to write the NEET to get into AHS programs, each college has its own admission criteria”

Dr. R.W. Alexander Jesudasan

The Panel members had a healthy discussion, marking important aspects on the importance and success in the field of Allied Health Sciences and the career opportunities that it brings along. The Discussion was managed and moderated with keen view and opinions by the Moderator, Ms. Ramya Kannan, Chief of Bureau – Tamil Nadu, The Hindu.

WEBINAR #3

TOPIC OF PANEL DISCUSSION: Liberal Arts education helps promote interdisciplinary learning

The third webinar of the series put forth an effective discussion by three eminent educationalists, representing renowned Institutions across India, on the merits of Liberal Arts education in interdisciplinary learning.

Dr. Afrose Farid, Professor and Head-Admissions, School of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences, and HOD, Department of Fashion Design and Arts, HITS, drew a vivid picture on the positive outcomes of Liberal Arts education and that of interdisciplinary education. She also spoke about the 21st Century Work Skill expected by employers and elaborated on how HITS has implemented it with examples. She voiced,

"Liberal arts education addresses what jobs and organizations expect in students, like critical thinking and writing, creative collaboration, art aesthetic visualization…. While an interdisciplinary education offers a broad knowledge of multiple disciplines, improving contextual learning capacity, problem-solving and critical thinking."

Dr. Salil Sahadevan, an independent Education Researcher, explained that the relevance of interdisciplinary education arose from the obsolescence of the linear path from education to career. He added, "With newer patterns of work emerging thanks to technologies like AI and Machine Learning, there is a lack of certainty. Thus, it is sensible to have a broad-based plan so that we may remain pivoted and agile in an evolving job market…. By continuing to pursue a wider range of topics that fascinate you". Offering a counter-argument, Dr. Joya John, Assistant Professor of Literature, Krea University, felt that there is a general tendency to reduce liberal arts education to a set of skills necessary for employability. She carefully elaborated on how different disciplines have an interface when addressing these issues, shedding light about her experiences with Interdisciplinary learning. Dr. Joya remarked, "A domain where the link between Liberal Arts and interdisciplinary education has become important is in its understanding of complex problems like environment, climate change or public health". The Panel raised strong and thought evoking points about the importance of Liberal Arts education in today's world. The session concluded with the panelists answering the questions raised by the attendees on job prospects, the future of interdisciplinary learning approach and out of box thinking. The Discussion was managed and moderated with keen view and opinions by the Moderator, Ms. Yashaswini Rajeshwar, founder and CEO, AuxoHub.

WEBINAR #4

TOPIC OF PANEL DISCUSSION: Digital Transformation of Law and How Students can adapt to it

The session was a reminder that many breakthroughs are yet to take place, giving the generation a chance to create remarkable history in the sector of digital transformation and law. Moderator, Ms. Pankaja Srinivasan, elaborated on the importance of updating and upskilling to the new normal of the post pandemic world. She concluded saying, "Covid-19 pandemic situations have catapulted humanity towards a world of virtuality".

Dr. J. Vincent Comraj, Dean School of Law, HITS, remarked that the Constitution of India holds several rights, such as right to represent, right to engage a lawyer for effective advocating, emphasizing more on the theoretical knowledge, when we study practice the practical knowledge to have to be a junior to a senior lawyer for at least few years.

"Necessity is the mother of Invention; we now have to resort to Artificial Intelligence support…in Education and legally have come in Practice. The Globalized Scenario and the access to knowledge in digital form have led to synchronized pedagogy, and that is the formal that is emerging."

Mr. Yusaf Abdul Kareem, Vice President of Emerging markets, Law School Admission Counsel, followed him and gave his overviews on the various changes in syllabus and courses in schools differentiating between the importance of knowing 'to teach and leverage the technology' and 'to specifically design the teachings to this interactive video space'. In his view, "The biggest impact that I see centers around globalization, the idea that we are all global citizens now has never been more of a truer statement. The fact that we are able to connect and the geographical bounds and limitations, has allowed us to connect in a way that we have been historically limited". Mr. Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO of LawSikho and Co-Founder of iPleaders stated that the most breakthrough technologies of the decade weren't formulated by people with massive credentials, but rather by college students, who are filled with curiosity and passion to explore with a quest to find out how the world could develop further. To him, "Young students have an opportunity of designing and defining what it is going to look like a few years down the line, it is not about how you cope up with the digital transformation but the question is how is the world going to cope with what you are going to do, because you are the digital natives". The discussion was very informative and essential in today's world of flourishing education system. The dignitaries explained about how artificial intelligence has become an integral part of our world and also in leading law firms across the globe. Moderator, Ms. Pankaja Srinivasan, did an extremely great job of giving her valuable inputs and taking the discussion forward on a great note.

WEBINAR #5

TOPIC OF PANEL DISCUSSION: Why Sustainability must be a part of Management Education?

The Session marked the importance of Sustainability and why it must be a vital part of management education system. Ms. Pankaja Srinivasan remarked that sustainability is far-fetched behind; to her, "It is very fashionable for all of to jump on to sustainability waggon".

Dr. David Easow, Deputy Director International Affairs & School of Management, HITS, claimed that most companies of today are 'going green' and they need managers who can perform sustainable business practices, He explained his point drawing reference from a study conducted by Mackenzie, proving that sustainable business has created new jobs and provided opportunity for their career growth. He mentioned the importance of redefining Management Education, focusing on sustainability and forward thinking. He aptly pointed out,

"Our next generation leaders… should have forward thinking, the right attitude, knowledge and mindset to create a sustainable future and they should have the skills for observing, analyzing and problem solving, and decision making to tackle complex global challenges and to use the god given recourses wisely for a better future".

Dr. Miniya Chatterjee, CEO of Sustain Labs, gave her view regarding the topic of discussion by drawing history of the emergence of Sustainability when Dr. Thomas Malthus, a population Scientist, in 1798 mentioned in his book about the geometric growth of population has led to the arithmetic growth of food, and emphasized on the outcome of this, resulting in scarcity of food for humanity. "The greatest need for sustainability is the need for policy makers as well as good entrepreneurs who works within organizations, we need all such people to be well trained in knowing how to be responsible to be the various stakeholders" she opined. Mr. Manav Subodh, Co-founder 1M1B, Global Ambassador-SCET University of California, Berkeley, spoke about the opportunity he received to work with the United Nations, creating an organization1M1B which means we will create a million people who will impact a billion people, many people don't know sustainability development, young people need to own the sustainable development, must focus on climate also including the economic growth and inequality, good health well-being gender. He believed, "We can create a million people who can impact a billion people. Young people need to own the sustainable development, must focus on climate including the economic growth and inequality, good health well-being gender". Moderator, Ms. Pankaja Srinivasan, concluded the meeting by thanking all the panel members for their tremendous knowledge sharing. She gave her views on Sustainability and how it has played a major role in the present generation.