Go ahead with distance education
Distance education is extremely important in positioning oneself stronger in a job. It helps the organisation gain competitive advantage. Our engineers become more competent and gain a vital understanding of skills other than technology.
CAREER PATHS are no longer so streamlined that an individual can bid goodbye to textbooks once he or she is done with their post graduation. The options for education are today limitless and it becomes difficult to anticipate all that you would require in your working life. It is only after you begin work that you begin to realise the areas you need more knowledge about. Distance education presents itself as an excellent solution to qualifying yourself without leaving the confines of a job you don’t wish to lose.
“Budding engineers try to acquire possible jobs at once after education. Our jobs sometimes require cross qualifications and often employees don’t get the opportunity to study at that time. So when the organisation supports you in acquiring your dream qualification to your profile, you would be really happy,” says Punkaj Shankar, global head – HR and RMG, Infogain Corporation. Talking about the support the company provides for higher education, Shankar says, “We have a unique higher education assistance programme for our engineers. If you want to go for higher education such as business management, we have our own institutes and you can get qualified online or through distance learning. All the employee has to do is get the go ahead from the HR. We provide complete financial assistance and not in the form of a loan, like it is done in many companies. At Infogain, the expenses are paid totally by the company. We have tie ups with many institutes such as the IIMs, Bits Pilani, the IITs, Symbiosis etc, generally for engineering and MBA programmes."
The organisation also benefits if its employees qualify themselves further. “Distance education is extremely important in positioning yourself stronger. It helps the organisation gain competitive advantage. Our engineers become more competent and gain a vital understanding of skills other than technology. After all, nowadays the thrust is to make everyone entrepreneurs,” agrees Shankar.
The Sikkim Manipal University of Distance Education (SMUDE) provides flexible form of distance education. “Close to 65 per cent of the students are working professionals. We have around three lakh students on roll. As per government provisions, an individual is allowed six years to pass an undergraduate distance education programme and four years for a post graduate course. You get double the time as a fulltime course because our regulators know that this form of education is often done alongside a job,” explains V Sivaramakrishnan, principal officer – distributed learning and chief marketing officer, Manipal University. Enunciating on the benefits of a distance learning course he says, “There are two main reasons why one should go for a distance education programme. Firstly, for working people, an additional degree is a stepping stone for promotion or for a better career in another organisation. Secondly, it poses an opportunity to pursue additional courses other than one’s primary degree. For example, a graduate in marketing may eventually find that he or she needs further qualification in finance or computers.”
A distance education programme doesn’t interfere with the individual’s on job performance thanks to its flexibility. “The fact that they are advancing professionally keeps them charged up and motivated,” opines Shankar.
Sivaramakrishnan explains with regard to SMUDE, “Campus courses are teacher centric but the structure, curriculum and learning methodologies in a distance education course are purely driven by the learner. We have four hybrid models for students to learn from. Firstly, we have self learning reading material. Secondly, we have counseling across nationwide study centres. If you have doubts, you simply have to mark them and get them solved at our study centres over the weekend. We have 650 study centres across 240 districts in India. Students also have the option of viewing satellite lectures – live or recorded at our study centres. And now we have a new online learning system called EduNxt. It is a technology based learning management system and consists of course material in e-learning format, open source references, a two million book strong online library, mentoring and chat sessions with other students and teachers. Because of this flexibility, you don’t need to leave your job.”
Thus, a distance education course definitely has professional value if done from a reputed institute.
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