Experts guide them on how to choose the best career

The Hindu EDGE Career Counselling, held at Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering here Mysuru on Sunday, attracted a large number of students and their parents.

A majority of the audience comprised students who had passed their II PU or class 12.

They, along with their parents, listened to Ameen-e-Mudassar, career counsellor and founder of Cigma Foundation, who spoke on career options covering engineering and medicine and alternatives [paramedical, allied health, pure science, humanities etc.] and Nagamallesh, resource person deputed by Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), who explained the procedure in alloting engineering seats to Common Entrance Test (CET) rank-holders.

Suma M.N., vice-principal of JSS Medical College and Hospital, threw light on the admission process for medical colleges.

B. Sadashive Gowda, principal of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, spoke on the scope of various engineering courses.

Mr. Ameen-e-Mudassar emphasised the need for the students to choose careers based on their aptitude, personality, skills, and interest.

Mr. Nagamallesh said the KEA’s document verification process will start at the designated helpline centre at Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering from June 6. Dates had been allotted to candidates based on their CET rank.

He encouraged students to apply to as many colleges and courses as they wish after document verification.

After the documents are verified, the students will be given an eight-digit secret key number with which they can enter their options for colleges and careers. “You can make 500 or 600 choices,” he said.

Before the real allotment comes the mock one. “When a seat is allotted to a student for the choice he or she has made in the real allotment, the options entered below the allotted seat will be erased,” he warned and asked students to choose the options carefully.

In the allotment of B.Sc. Agriculture seats by the University of Agriculture Sciences, 40% of them have been reserved for children of agriculturists, Mr. Nagamallesh said.

Aspirants have to produce a Right to Tenancy Certificate, which certifies them as agriculturists.

Dr. Sadashive Gowda said many colleges offered both computer science and information science in view of the high demand.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which regulates engineering education in the country, had stipulated that each college should not offer more than 120 seats in each branch. Hence, many colleges, in view of the demand, introduced information science by changing three or four subjects.

Almost everyone who completes computer science gets placed in an IT company in India or abroad, he claimed.

Dr. Suma said there were some pre-requisites for students aspiring for seats under the NRI quota in medical colleges. They should be children or siblings of NRIs or children of siblings of NRIs, she said.

All the students were given a free career handbook containing articles on courses and emerging trends.

The platinum sponsors for the The Hindu Edge Career counselling programme are Reva University and Presidency University. The gold sponsors are Kammavari Sangham Group of Institutions, Cambridge Institute of Technology, Universal Coaching Centre, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Christ – a deemed to be university - and Rajarajeshwari Group of Institutions. The silver sponsors are HKBK College of Engineering and NTTF. Regional sponsors are Maharaja Institute of Technology, Tandavapura, Brindavan Group of Institutions, Bengaluru, and Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology.