Bits & bytes
Weekend courses to woo professionals

With a view to helping working professionals learn while they earn, Guru Gobind Singh University (GGSIPU) recently started a series of weekend programmes in management, engineering and media.

“Weekend courses are the best way for working professionals to upgrade their qualification without taking a break from the industry,” GGSIPU Vice-Chancellor Prof K.K. Aggarwal said after releasing the admission brochures for the coming academic session.

The first university in India to introduce an MBA in real estate, GGSIPU is hopeful of getting a good number of students enrolled for their MBA (weekend) even as the online management course is fast catching up with business management aspirants in the country.

“MBA is a highly specialised discipline in which experiencing classroom interaction, case discussions and industry interface are important and this is possible through a weekend course,” GGSIPU official said.

The university has also introduced two postgraduate programmes in media studies, one of which, a Postgraduate Diploma in Electronic Media, is a weekend course.

To further facilitate working professionals to brush up their communication and presentation skills, the university has conceptualised a two-year modular programme in Master’s in English and Communication.

“It will be modular course and will provide an option of exiting in one year with a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Skills and Personality, Aggarwal said.

IGNOU steps to promote e-learning

In steps to promote e-learning, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has decided to provide computers with internet facility to all its 1,600 learner support centres across the country and abroad.

These computers will be used by the centres for administrative purposes like maintenance of students’ records, transmission of grades and other areas of learner support services, a senior IGNOU official said in New Delhi recently.

Two computers will be provided to each such centre, he added.

The university is also planning to set up computer labs at the centres to enable learners in Information Communication Technology (ICT).

Though IGNOU’s learner support centres are located in various host institutions, the university will bear the expenses for creating the facilities while the institutions will provide the space, the official said.

IGNOU is taking several other steps to promote e-learning which include creation of a national digital repository by e-Gyankosh, creation of tele-learning centres, launching smart cards for its students and creation of information kiosks at its regional centres, he said.

Punjab to introduce new technical courses

To make technical education job-oriented, new job allied trades such as information technology would be introduced in polytechnic colleges of Punjab in the new academic session.

Besides, unpopular trades like commercial arts and architecture had been closed at Patiala and Jalandhar polytechnic colleges respectively, Naresh Nagpal, Additional Director, Technical Education of Punjab, said in Hoshiarpur recently.

He said the move to introduce job-friendly courses was to help students get jobs or make themselves self-employed. There are 18 government, four government-aided and 50 unaided polytechnic colleges in the state teaching as many as 26 trades to more than 15,000 students. — PTI

TCS hikes salaries

After registering a healthy growth for the financial year '06-'07, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is walking an extra mile to retain its present employees and attract newer talents from the industry who have become the basis of company's robust growth.

The company announced a wage increase of 12 to 15 per cent for its Indian employees. whereas for global employees, the hike will be in the range of five to six per cent. The campus recruitment hike will be 15 per cent.

The company at present has a global workforce of 89,419 persons which includes employees from 67 nationalities. Overseas nationals form 9.6 per cent of the total employee base.

The company continues to maintain its lowest attrition rate. The company registered the lowest attrition rate of 11.3 percent for the current year.

TCS Global Human Resources Head S. Padmanabhan said, ''We have delivered lowest attrition rate in the industry in an environment of intense competition for talent and our efforts to build a global pool of professionals are bearing fruit.'' — UNI