Tailor-made ‘add-on’ courses popular with degree students

MUMBAI: While popularity of programmes is one of the major parameters why students choose a degree college, of late, ‘add-on’ courses offered by city colleges are also a key factor in deciding a student’s choice.
These value-added certificate/short-term courses which supplement the primary course that students pursue are increasingly becoming popular with students.Most courses are tailor-made for industries and also are offered in collaboration with industry experts for a period of few weeks or months. Right from courses in stem cell, astronomy, to the ones in digital marketing, videography, advertising, etc, city colleges offer a lot of skill-based training to make students industry ready.
At Jai Hind College, degree college aspirants have been calling up with queries on the ‘add-on’ courses the college offers. “Most of these courses are aimed at bridging the gap between the industry and the academia. Students not only get trained by professionals but also get hands-on experience. It supplements what students are learning in the core programme. The fees are decided by industry experts,” said principal Ashok Wadia.
HR College of Commerce and Economics offers courses in advertising, travel and tourism, sales management, etc and all these courses are popular with students, said principal Indu Shahani. The fees at the college range from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 depending on the level of training.
Principal of Khalsa College, Kiran Mangaonkar, said, “Both data analytics and computer networking offered at his college are job-oriented courses. If a student has mathematical-statistical background, he/she will opt for data analytics.”
Vidyadhar Joshi, vice-principal, Vaze College, said, “Students of botany and biology would prefer to go for a course in algal biotechnology or plant tissue culture. We ensure that the students get personal attention.” BB Sharma, principal at the college, said, “The courses are for 10 days each and provide hands-on training. Only econometrics and manuscriptology are for eight weeks.”
At KC College, the course in videography is the most popular among students. There are about 40-50 students taking each course, said principal Manju Nichani.
Harsha Mehta, principal at SIES College said, “Under the Centre for Excellence, we provide 64 courses. Each course has different modules and different duration and the fees depend on the trainers.” The college even has courses like cake, chocolate and handicraft making. Foreign languages are popular among students and so are translation and script writing, Mehta added.
At some colleges, the courses are also offered on Sundays and public holidays for students’ convenience. At KJ Somaiya College in Vidyavihar, students also get credits for taking these courses. “These ‘add-on’ courses at our college are part of the curriculum and students get three credits for that. For example, foreign languages can be taken in place of foundation course in the college,” said principal Vijay Joshi. The college follows its own evaluation pattern after getting autonomy two years ago.
Several colleges choose to call these courses “value-added courses” as the terminology ‘add-on’ means a university-approved course. Since students have to pay additional fees for these courses, their number in any of the programmes do not usually exceed 50 at any college. A student from a college in the western suburbs said that sometimes the course fees are too steep for them to enrol. But since it is voluntary, students can benefit from doing so, she added.