IIT Madras launches minor stream in ‘Personal and professional development’

NEW DELHI : Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras is launching a minor stream in ‘Personal and Professional Development’. The courses in the new stream are aimed to aid students in their personal and professional development. IIT Madras Senate recently approved the proposal to introduce a minor stream.

The minor stream is open to all the students of BTech and dual degree programmes while the courses offered under this programme are available as elective courses to all students of IITM irrespective of their programme.

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The minor stream includes more than 15 courses such as self awareness; happiness habits and success; FLOW for high performance, systems thinking and discovering creativity.

“The Institute already offers several courses for personal and professional growth and leadership development. Around 1,500 students register for these courses, annually. The new minor stream will greatly boost the efforts of the Institute to transform student culture, talent and leadership and achieve holistic development,” said IIT Madras in an official statement.

Highlighting the importance of such courses, Professor V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “Personal Development programs help fulfil the inner (human) urge to actualize one’s full potential through self-discovery, self-awareness, self-leadership and self-mastery. Specifically these programs are expected to positively impact the way of thinking in our young minds. Professional Development programs help build both interpersonal and transferable skills with an objective to meet various career aspirations of our students.”

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The key features of the upcoming ‘Personal and Professional Development’ minor stream include:

• happiness centred’ approach to living
• internalizing creativity habits
• play as an integral part of a leader
• self-mastery, self-esteem and self-discovery
• cultivating wisdom through systems thinking approaches
• forging enriching relationships
• sustainable living and prospering
• role of an engineer in the society
• cultivating innovative and entrepreneurship mindset, among other areas