Educational seminar in Shillong

A seminar on “Technology Evolution – Today and our tomorrow” was held at St. Edmund’s College, Shillong on December 8th’2009 organized by St. Edmund’s College. Distinguished speakers Mr. P. M. Dastidar (IGP, Communication, Assam Police) and Mr. Prashant Barooah a Technocrate from Delhi graced the occasion. While Mr. Dastidar talked about evolution and revolutions of Communication technologies which we have seen in last couple of decades and future technologies which are going to change our lives tomorrow. Mr. Barooah presented talk on telephony systems, technologies, Next Generation Networks and spoke about how students can choose right technical domain as their career options. He also talked about future technology evolution and how the students can prepare themselves for future job scenarios.

Mr. Barooah touched upon Higher and professional education and training needs that students should focus on as per need of 21st century, developing the ability to flourish in a world that is fundamentally diverse and irredeemably different. He emphasized that students and teachers should focus on knowledge creation. We got to be instead of a knowledge-absorbing society, North East India has to become a knowledge-generating society. Twenty first century is global and need to prepare themselves for this global system by choosing right career paths and gearing up for tomorrow’s challenging situation where all will talk about only experts and professionals and students would not be able to fulfill the need just by conventional educations but far more advanced training coaching are the need of the hour. We need complete clarity in terms of what to learn, how to learn and where to learn. Our students must take into account that they are adequately prepared for tomorrow.

Mr. Barooah also mentioned that there is a complete paradigm shift and there was a time when a person would remain in one profession for a lifetime. Several surveys have shown that on an average a person changes at least 10 professions in his lifetime. Instead of preparing a career for life, we have to prepare a life of careers. Today student should have, and these are quite independent of the field of knowledge, social and communication skills, management, creative thinking, capacity of dealing with complex and multidisciplinary work and team. Those of us who are involved in the field of international education and job market realize how North Eastern Students are unconnected to most of the world and information. Most students still do not know which are right career paths for them and remain confused and the majority of those who do are forced into it by adverse conditions and events.

Mr. Barooah raised his concern, ARE YOU STUDENTS from North East FUTURE READY? Making students of North East India future ready, the focus areas should be - use of information and communication technologies, engage early in career planning, recognize right career as per future demand, explore options, plan what steps are needed to enter your chosen occupation, evaluate whether you are ready for implementation and then act. He informed students and teachers attending the seminar that he would work towards helping students in the region with help from educationists and experts with access to right information and counseling through a web portal (http://www.necareerguidance.com) which would provide End-to End Career Guidance where most up-to-date and enormous information is/would be available related to Education & Career for the students hailing from the North Eastern States of India including teachers, parents, guardians, schools, colleges and various professional institutions. The purpose of the portal is to provide detailed information and right guidance to students who are unaware of various career options available within the country and worldwide. It would help who are puzzled and unable to take right decision on their career moves in a particular field of interests and relevance. This also contains detailed information related to education and career with possibility of career assessments and help students choosing right career considering future job scenarios based on practical research.