If you are clueless about what career path to pursue, here’s looking at some popular courses that are taking India by storm, says Surjit Singh Pabla

What are our kids or professionals up to these days? What are the courses that draw them? What are the promises and what are the outcomes of those dreams and ambitions? We have for you a list of popular courses taking India by storm.  Please note: these are not in order with priorities.

Digital Marketing

The digital marketing engineer executes or advises on the execution of, the company’s digital strategy. He may be either part of the senior marketing management team or operating as a consultant. He is responsible for the final architecture, implementation, and management of the digital marketing plan, including advising on using digital technology to improve marketing and business results. As a digital marketing engineer, he has to have knowledge of marketing, social media and the deep knowledge of Internet and its use.

Vocational Graduation

A graduation degree offers student nothing more than theoretical knowledge about a chosen subject where major stumbling block becomes lack of practical knowledge of working in an industry and the skill gap.  At the end of tenure of vocational degree, it not only offers a valid graduation degree but also offers in-depth practical knowledge of working on machines and practical working experience of an industry as the courses are designed in such a way that students spend equal amount of time in theoretical learning and practical learning.

There are so many trades where vocational courses are offered and programmes related to computers are going to need computers big time but the courses such as carpentry or manufacturing are highly dependent upon technology as quality carpentry nowadays is performed on highly precise machines, even manufacturing skills for that matter involves machines that offer high level of precision.

Ethical Hacking

This is the gaining of unauthorised access to data in one or more computers, performed by a company or individual to help identify potential threats on a computer or network. An ethical hacker attempts to bypass the security of system and search for any weak points that could be prone to exploitation by malicious hackers. This information is then used by the person or organisation that hired the ethical hacker, to improve the system security, in an effort to minimise or eliminate any potential attacks.

Internet security and networking are the two fastest-growing industries where ethical hackers can find employment. Ethical hackers are hired to find any vulnerability that might exist in a network and to fix them. They can join the Government as well as private organisations as cyber-security experts. IT firms are the main recruiters of ethical hackers. They can also be required by financial service providers, airlines, retail chains and hotels.

Entrepreneurship

There is a myth about skill courses. That it is meant for those who want to join jobs in their chosen skill sets whereas they ignore the bigger picture of enterprise development which the academia, universities and Government is trying to address by introducing courses like B Voc in Entrepreneurship. A good number of institutions have been conducting short duration and long duration entrepreneurship development programmes.

IoT and AI

The IoT and AI skills will enable students to gain expertise in smart connected devices, including end-device development, Cloud Computing, Network Design & Management, Application Interface Design and Data Management & Analytics on one hand and a comprehensive coverage of essential embedded technologies, current tools and trends on the other. It is structured to provide students with a broad, versatile skillset, coupled with hands-on industry exposure.  Students having skills in networking are being placed in all industries, big or small.

Phonetics & Robotics

We are surrounded by smart devices that need better platforms and network architectures to support usage of these devices to our advantage. The top five IT firms contribute over 25% of the total industry revenue indicating that the market is fairly competitive.  Considering this aspect, the scope of IT  skills is quite wide. The B Voc programme in the discipline of IT (Networking) has been designed to introduce students to the operations of today’s complex networking infrastructure by giving them an understanding, basic to advanced, of various networking setups, troubleshooting, repair of specific hardware and software products  and of course setting secure networking connections facilitating ease of network usage. The skill component essentially covers the skills needed in a given area and is almost entirely hands on work on the state-of-the-art machines and equipment sourced from the best brands worldwide.

The writer is president, Bhartiya Skill Development University, Jaipur