Employability is a set of skills, knowledgeand personal attributes that make an individual more employable in today’sworld. In the recent years, the higher education has come under anincreasing pressure to produce employable graduates. To strengthen theknowledge and skills of the graduates, requisite for the current job market andmake them employable, the University Grants Commission (UGC) in August 2018published a public notice directing all the central institutions, to form a subject-specificcommittee to undertake the revision of all courses for UG and PG programs,specify their learning outcomes and implement the Learning Outcome-basedCurriculum Framework called LOCF. In this direction, The Higher EducationDepartment J&K empowered its Colleges to organize seminars/workshops invarious subjects with full financial support to create awareness about thedifferent aspects of LOCF and reflect on the potential and outcomes of varioussubjects. The implementation of LOCF will be a third major academic reform inthe recent times. The last two majoracademic reforms, one the CBCS and the other the semester system wereundertaken in 2015. The LOCF is aquality improvement program aimed to fine tune the curriculum within thepresent Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). The fundamental idea of the LOCF isthat, a graduate at the end of a degree should be able to be employable, basedon the updated knowledge, skills and core values gained during the program.
Learning outcome is a statement of what alearner is expected to know, understand and be able to do at the end of acourse. It plays an increasingly important role in the efforts to improve thequality and relevance of higher education. The stakeholders which includestudents, teachers, parents and the general public must know the learningoutcome expected from a degree and how it can ensure the career prospects of astudent. The recruiters will also come to know the skills acquired by a studentthrough a degree program to be able to make campus placements. Learningoutcomes is going to clarify program, qualifications, intentions and make iteasier for stakeholders to work towards their expectations. The universitieshave to specify knowledge, skills and its applications a student has acquiredwho is able to demonstrate as a result of learning during an academic course ofBA/BSc or MA/MSc degree. It includes the core competencies a student willacquire after finishing the course and other skills such as field work,projects, research and problem solving etc, which clearly indicates what astudent should know and be able to do as a result of learning. The approach ofLOCF is to instill in our graduates all positive attributes one can think of –ranging from moral, ethical, logical/analytical reasoning, critical thinking,problem solving attitude, to balance their personal and social needs.
Designing LOCF curriculum means startingwith a clear picture of what is important for students to be able to do. TheUGC Expert Committees have developed the LOCF reports in different subjectswhich are available on UGC website. The LOCF for the UG programs, say inPhysics for BSc/Honours is intended to provide a broad framework which can helpto create an academic base that responds to the need of the students tounderstand the basics of Physics and its ever evolving nature of applications.Physics is a fundamental science to understand the world around us, the worldinside us and the world beyond us. The UG students in our Colleges are expectedto study various laws, conduct practicals, analyze scientific data, solvequantitative problems, handle equations and develop new ideas. To design LOCF,we have to take stock of all the curriculum of 6-semesters which includetheory, practicals, skill courses, projects, assignments, tutorials, trainings,etc. We can start with the history of sciences, basic concepts and build on tothe latest understanding of the subject. For example, we can start with theScientific Revolution which began during the Renaissance and continued throughthe 17th and 18th centuries. The discovery of new knowledge, ideas and theoriestransformed the views of the society and its application latter paved the wayfor the first Industrial Revolution in the human history. This was an era ofClassical Physics.
The Modern Physics started in the early20th century and encompasses the elements of Quantum Mechanics and Einstein’srelativity. Quantum Mechanics is a Mathematical description that rules ourmicroscopic world of atoms, particles such as electrons, photons etc whichexist both as waves and particles. Most of the Quantum Mechanics is weird,puzzling, paradoxical, mysterious with confusing ideas that violates our commonsense. But the most amazing thing about the subject is that it is the most successfultheory that explains virtually all known phenomena with an unprecedented levelof accuracy. All modern technology-the information technology that we rely onfrom microcircuits to lasers is based on Quantum Mechanics. The X-rays,NMR/MRI, Atomic Clocks, Cryptography, Electron Microscopes, NuclearFission/Fusion all rely on Quantum Mechanics. The subject is the foundation ofso many new disciplines like Nanotechnology, Quantum Computing, ArtificialIntelligence etc and is a tool in other multi-disciplinary subjects. Goingthrough such an exciting course, the students will develop proficiency in usingMathematics, the Software and the trainings in conducting experiments that isgoing to expand their logic, reason and improve their criticalthinking skills. Designing a course of these exciting developments willsurely ignite the young minds with a lot of inspiration to innovate, create anddiscover things and link them with the surroundings to analyze new situationsand find solutions. A true pass out graduate will certainly have an option taking higher studies/research orworking in a range of industries or apply for a competitive exam in UPSC, SSC,SSRB, Banking etc.
While many universities still emphasize ona graduate’s ability to obtain employment that matches their area of study,there is an increasing focus on developing the broader skills set that willallow them to adapt to a rapidly changing and diverse world of work. But thisall depends upon the quality of teaching and learning and fine-tuning of theacademic resources and learning environment. Recently, the Higher EducationDeptt initiated a strong move towards digitization of education and askedteachers to prepare e-content which included texts, images, graphics,animations, videos etc for its students. Most of the Colleges presently are equipped with smart boards and otherICT devices. Surely this is going to change the dynamics of traditional methodof teaching-learning process based on the transfer of knowledge to theindividuals to what we call democratization ofknowledge. The use of technology coupled with LOCFs can surely helpleapfrog into inclusive growth and improvement in the quality of education, thebenefit of which will go to the students. This will usher in good opportunitiesin their career prospects and the needs of the community. Now that Collegeswill be following fine-tuned curriculum, the ball lies in the court of teachersand the academic administrators, as they are at a greater flexibility todevelop and adopt courses for the students.