CHENNAI: The State Higher Education Department has launched six new polytechnic courses in 2022-23 to attract enrolment of more female students and make them employable. Officials said most of the students in polytechnic institutes are men as these colleges offer mostly hardcore technical courses, and only a few women students join them.
The new-age courses, launched in six government polytechnic colleges on a pilot basis, will soon be extended to other colleges. While mechanical engineering and computer aided design (CAD) courses have been started in Central Polytechnic College in Chennai, office management and computer application courses have been rolled out in State Institute of Commerce Education, Chennai.
Similarly, courses on ECG technology will be offered at Government Polytechnic College in Coimbatore, web technologies at Tamil Nadu Polytechnic College in Madurai, bio-medical electronics at Government Polytechnic College, Nagercoil, and interior decoration at Dr. Dharmambal Government Polytechnic College for Women in Chennai.
“Our aim is to increase the enrolment of women in polytechnic colleges. New-age courses like interior decoration and bio-medical electronics will definitely attract more students and provide better job opportunities,” said a senior official.
Plans are on to curate study materials and recruit teaching faculty for these courses. The government is also taking steps to enhance the skills of students to match industrial requirements. “Add-on courses based on industrial needs are being conducted at a cost of Rs 3 crore for final-year students at government polytechnic colleges from academic year 2021-22 in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation. So far, over 3,000 students have benefited from them,” a senior official said.