New college courses to nurture social entrepreneurs and medical experts

From courses like a masters in social entrepreneurship or early childhood care and development, an MBA in disaster management or a bachelors in rehabilitation therapy, audiology and speech language therapy to those in exotic languages like Pashto - all have been introduced to create experts in specific fields.

‘Take childhood care and education — there is a major thrust for it after the national policy of 2013 on childhood care was formulated. This course will produce experts and in the process help in the implementation of the policy,’ Venita Kaul, dean, School of Educational Studies at Ambedkar University (AUD), said.

The course, said Kaul, has been designed to suit the need of the policy as experts will be required at the district and state levels for childhood care after its formulation. The National Early Childhood Care and Education policy aims at developing a national framework for early childhood care and education and quality standards in the country.

‘Even organisations like Unicef, Plan India and the World Bank have requirements of experts on childhood care. Now in the private sector, with pre-nursery and playschools growing, the need for childhood care is immense,’ added Kaul.

The other courses introduced at AUD are MA in social entrepreneurship and M.Phil in development practice at the higher level.

‘Social entrepreneurship is meant to produce entrepreneurs in the social sector. This course will produce job creators and teach students about basic business skills,’ Kuriakose Mamkottam, director, School of Business Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship at AUD, said.

Theory apart, students will also have to do two months of field work and prepare a plan for their entrepreneurial ventures that can be supported (with resources and finances) by AUD’s Incubation Centre or by a pool of venture capitalists.

For the M.Phil in development practice, students will spend eight of the 24 months of the course in the villages of Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Bihar in collaboration with NGO Pradan, which seeks to enable poor, rural families to lead a life of dignity.